Paranormal Activity 4

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) Review: A Franchise Running Out of Ideas?

After thoroughly enjoying my experience revisiting the first three Paranormal Activity movies, I was becoming increasingly invested in the supernatural mystery surrounding Katie, Kristi and their family. Each instalment had expanded the mythology in some interesting ways, and although the films were beginning to follow a familiar formula, they had consistently managed to deliver genuinely frightening moments. Unfortunately, Paranormal Activity 4 represents a massive step backwards for the franchise. I went into this sequel hoping we’d finally receive some answers following the disturbing revelations of the third movie, particularly now that the story was moving forward several years. Instead, I found myself watching a frustratingly uneventful horror film that introduces several promising ideas but does very little with them. For the first time during this marathon, I was genuinely disappointed by what the filmmakers had delivered.

Released in 2012 and once again directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, Paranormal Activity 4 takes place in 2011, five years after the events surrounding Katie and Micah in the original film. The story follows teenager Alex Nelson (Kathryn Newton), who begins noticing increasingly strange behaviour from a young boy named Robbie after he temporarily moves into her family’s home. Robbie has developed a friendship with Alex’s adopted younger brother Wyatt, and it isn’t long before unexplained disturbances begin occurring throughout the house. With the help of her boyfriend Ben, Alex uses laptop cameras and other recording devices to investigate the unusual activity. However, as the supernatural encounters become increasingly threatening, it becomes apparent that the family’s new visitor may have connections to the disturbing events witnessed in the previous films.

One of the things that initially interested me about this instalment was the decision to move the story forward into a more technologically advanced setting. The previous films had already demonstrated how effectively the found footage format could be used to generate fear, and with the introduction of laptop cameras and motion tracking technology, there was an opportunity to explore the supernatural activity in some genuinely inventive ways. Unfortunately, despite having access to considerably more technology than the characters in the earlier movies, the filmmakers somehow manage to make this sequel feel less imaginative. Rather than taking the established formula in an exciting new direction, Paranormal Activity 4 seems perfectly content to repeat familiar ideas without delivering the atmosphere or intensity that made its predecessors so effective.

The most interesting addition is undoubtedly the use of the Xbox Kinect’s motion tracking technology, which transforms the living room into a sea of illuminated tracking dots when viewed through a night vision camera. It’s a clever concept that immediately creates opportunities for some wonderfully unsettling imagery. The idea that an invisible presence could potentially be detected through technology designed to recognise human movement is genuinely fascinating, and I was particularly intrigued by the sequence in which the system appears to register another figure moving behind Wyatt. For a brief moment, the film captures that same uncomfortable feeling of witnessing something that shouldn’t be there. Unfortunately, moments like this are surprisingly rare, and I couldn’t help feeling that the filmmakers had barely scratched the surface of what they could have achieved with such an inventive concept.

What makes this even more frustrating is that Paranormal Activity 4 arguably features the least memorable supernatural activity of any instalment so far. The first movie terrified me through its relentless anticipation, the second introduced some deeply disturbing encounters involving a young child and the family dog, while the third delivered increasingly elaborate demonstrations of the entity’s power. By comparison, this sequel feels remarkably restrained, but not in the carefully calculated way that made the original so effective. Instead, much of the running time is spent waiting for something interesting to happen, only for the eventual payoff to feel underwhelming. I found myself repeatedly searching the background of each recording, hoping to spot something unusual, but there were far too many occasions when the footage offered very little worth examining.

I’ve always appreciated that the Paranormal Activity franchise relies on patience and gradual escalation rather than constantly overwhelming the audience with jump scares. However, there’s a considerable difference between building suspense and simply allowing scenes to continue without creating any meaningful tension. Unfortunately, I think this instalment frequently struggles to understand that distinction. The repetitive recordings become increasingly tiresome, and because the supernatural activity rarely feels particularly threatening, the anticipation gradually disappears.

Another thing that particularly irritated me was the repeated use of laptop footage suddenly jumping or glitching in an obvious attempt to create jump scares. I understand what the filmmakers were trying to achieve, but when you resort to the same trick multiple times throughout the movie, it quickly becomes predictable and loses whatever impact it might have had. Rather than making me jump, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed by how frequently they relied on it. I wasn’t sitting there feeling anxious about what might happen next. I was becoming frustrated that so little was happening at all. Considering how effectively the previous three films had managed to frighten me, I found this lack of atmosphere particularly disappointing.

When it comes to the characters, Kathryn Newton is probably the most recognisable performer in the film, and it’s interesting seeing her in one of her earlier roles. As Alex, she provides the audience with someone who is understandably concerned about the increasingly strange behaviour surrounding her family. For much of the movie, she’s effectively our central character, investigating the disturbances and attempting to understand what’s happening to her younger brother. However, I found it frustrating that after spending so much time establishing her perspective, the final act doesn’t give her particularly much to contribute beyond reacting to the increasingly chaotic events. It’s a shame because there was an opportunity to develop her character into something more memorable, particularly given how heavily the narrative relies on her investigation throughout the opening two thirds.

Unfortunately, the wider cast doesn’t leave much of an impression either. Unlike the previous films, where the family relationships helped make the supernatural encounters feel more personal, I struggled to become particularly invested in the characters here. The one exception is Katie, whose return immediately captured my attention. Having spent the previous three films learning about her childhood, her connection to the entity and the horrifying events surrounding her family, I was eager to discover what had happened to her during the years since the original movie. Her presence introduces an immediate sense of danger, particularly towards the conclusion, but I couldn’t help feeling that the filmmakers were relying on our familiarity with the character rather than giving us anything particularly substantial to explore.

This brings me to what is easily my biggest frustration with Paranormal Activity 4: the story. After the third film introduced further revelations surrounding Katie and Kristi’s grandmother and her apparent involvement with a mysterious coven, I was expecting this sequel to provide some much needed clarification. Instead, it introduces an entirely new collection of questions without making the existing mythology any easier to understand. The relationship between Robbie and Wyatt is particularly confusing. For much of the film, I assumed Robbie would eventually be revealed as Hunter, the child taken during the events of the second movie. However, the eventual revelation that Wyatt is actually Hunter completely changes our understanding of the situation, leaving me wondering who Robbie really is and what purpose he serves within the wider story. Rather than feeling excited by this twist, I found myself increasingly frustrated by how little the film explains.

Of course, I appreciate that mystery has always been an essential part of this franchise. The original film was terrifying precisely because we knew so little about the entity, while the sequels gradually introduced information that made the supernatural events feel connected to something much larger. However, after four instalments, I think it’s reasonable to expect the filmmakers to start providing more substantial answers. There’s only so long you can continue introducing new characters, unexplained connections and increasingly complicated revelations before the mythology begins to feel unnecessarily convoluted. Rather than building on the intrigue established by the earlier films, Paranormal Activity 4 seems determined to make the story even more confusing, and I found that considerably more irritating than intriguing.

The ending does little to improve matters. Katie’s appearance during the final sequence is undoubtedly one of the film’s more unsettling moments, particularly because we already understand how dangerous she has become. However, the conclusion arrives so abruptly that I was left feeling as though the story had simply stopped rather than reached a satisfying resolution. The appearance of a large group of women gathered around Katie’s house also suggests that the mysterious coven introduced in the previous film may still be involved, but once again the filmmakers offer very little explanation. I understand the intention is probably to create anticipation for future instalments, yet I couldn’t help wondering how these revelations were supposed to connect everything we’d witnessed so far. Instead of leaving me excited about where the story might go next, the ending left me feeling increasingly confused about where it had already been.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Paranormal Activity 4 is that it comes from the same directing duo responsible for the third instalment, which I currently consider my favourite of the franchise. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman had previously demonstrated an excellent understanding of how to manipulate the found footage format, particularly through the inventive oscillating camera and some genuinely terrifying supernatural encounters. Here, however, that creativity feels noticeably absent. The new technology should have provided an opportunity to reinvent the scares, while the return to the present day should have allowed the mythology to develop in a more meaningful direction. Instead, both elements feel underutilised, resulting in a sequel that struggles to justify its existence beyond continuing an already successful franchise.

Ultimately, Paranormal Activity 4 is easily the weakest instalment I’ve revisited so far, and a frustrating reminder that even an effective horror formula can eventually become stale when filmmakers stop finding interesting ways to develop it. There are a handful of unsettling moments, particularly involving the motion tracking technology and Katie’s return, but they’re nowhere near enough to compensate for the lack of memorable scares, underdeveloped characters and increasingly confusing mythology. What makes the experience particularly disappointing is that the film had all the ingredients necessary to deliver something worthwhile, yet consistently fails to capitalise on them. After three enjoyable instalments, this is the first time I’ve finished a Paranormal Activity movie feeling more frustrated than frightened. Hopefully, the remaining films can restore some of the creativity and genuine terror that made me enjoy this franchise in the first place.