Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – A Movie Review

 

When in Manila, it is time to gather your courage and friends to see Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.

The movie starts out with such a good vibe – a graduation party. Two friends who recently graduated from High School, Jesse and Hector, are  typical teenagers who find joy in recording their adventures through a video camera, including doing crazy stunts, getting drunk and partying.  Their adventures include snooping inside the house of a murdered neighbour, an old lady who is believed to be a witch. What they find are not dead bodies, though, but  black magic rituals, book of spells and pictures of Jesse. 

The next morning, Jesse finds a bite on his arm, which he cannot remember getting. He starts to feel so powerful that he believes he has a superhuman power.

Or maybe he is being possessed!

My Review of Paranormal Activity – The Marked Ones

Paranormal Activity – The Marked Ones keeps the same formula that made the series a hit to begin with: suspense  from the nondescript, raw videos in a first person perspective. However, it also gives a new frill through the diverse characters. It is heightened by the unfamiliar setting and language,  which adds a horrid reflex in the film (it might help to have someone who speaks Spanish come and see the movie with you).

The scare factor of the movie is balanced out with comedic acts and fun dialogues from the two characters who have such great chemistry.

Something that non-fans of horror and suspense films might appreciate (yes, me!).

Down to the last minutes of the film, a few facts and characters in the previous Paranormal Activity movies are seen captured on the video recorder and are connected to this recent film – something that movie-goers might probably find out in the next film. Interestingly, after the movie credits, the screams that echoed in the cinema during the movie proper were replaced with discussions about the previous Paranormal Activity films and The Marked Ones. 

His Review of Paranormal Activity – The Marked Ones

The (new) Latino setting definitely keeps things interesting in the otherwise been-there-done-that series of scares that follow.

The occasional comic relief was also a welcome change –something we didn’t get to see much of in the past films.

But in the end, movie-goers will come wanting two things: the scares and a significant development to the overall plot.

Most folks who will watch this would have already seen the last four films, and would definitely find the scares a little tired and too cliche at this point. The overall plot develops just a little bit, but considering this is already the fifth film in the Paranormal Activity franchise, the next sequel may be a good time to (finally) conclude the story and tie up all the loose ends. For a low-budget movie franchise that has earned decently over the years, six movies sounds pretty good.

 

When in Manila, find out who the marked ones are. Go see Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – and please, no video recording.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is now showing in Philippine cinemas.

From United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corporation.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – A Movie Review