Release Date – 10/21/2011
Before Katie and Kristi were haunted as adults, they were haunted as children. Its 1988 and their mother Julie and her boyfriend Dennis start noticing some odd things happening in their house. Dennis decides to carry a camera around to document whatever he can. When he thinks he’s missing valuable material, he buys even more equipment and switches tapes every 6 hours to catch as much as he can. But what he finds out scares him more than intrigues him. The youngest daughter, Kristi, is getting uncomfortably close with an imaginary friend and noises are keeping them up at night. A prequel to the previous movies, this one builds more on the back story. While it may have some pretty damn creeptacular scares, I think the original movie is better without knowing too much about how the hauntings happen.
Acting is key in these movies because they are supposed to be believable enough where you kind of think what you are watching is real. The movie does not contain a camera crew. Its all based on single camera shots held by one of the characters. Much like Cloverfield, the cameraman becomes a character. The acting the third time around is just so-so. Surprisingly the young girls (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown) are the better half of the equation. The adults (Lauren Bittner and Christopher Nicholas Smith) have a couple cheesy lines that could only come straight off a mediocre script. Takes away from the OH MY GOD IS THIS REAL kind of feel. Plus it takes you out of it when Dennis has to constantly grab the camera before checking on the kids. I mean, seriously? I guess if this was happening to me then I’d want to document it too so everyone believed me. But in the original movie there aren’t any kids to worry about so it’s more sensible to get the camera first. One thing I did like is how they were restricted by the time period. Six hour VHS tapes and big ass cameras. At first it even feels like you’re watching an old VHS but it doesn’t last throughout the film for some reason.
I was a big fan of the first movie from director Oren Peli. It was unique, had a very real feel to it and the acting didn’t take me out of it. Plus it was freaky as shit. The 2nd one from director Tod Williams was kind of just a rehash. It was almost the same movie but they try to build up back story even more. We actually find out its happening before the events in the first movie. And now we go even further back and get even more back story from Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. Can we just have some scares and not have to find out why they’re happening? Just deal with it in this kind of movie. Its supposed to be found footage, not a complete documentary and that’s what the series has become now. Don’t you worry though, the scares are there to the MAX! It’s a really creepy movie. Scenes that will have you biting your nails and jumping out of your seat, if that’s your sort of thing then definitely see it. But I did not enjoy the end at all when they try to tie into the events of the previous movies. Quality wise, I’d put it in the middle of the two. I loved the original, thought the 2nd one was the same old thing and now the 3rd one gets the scares right but with an ending trying to bridge things together and explain too much. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed myself in the theater, but I didn’t love it.
IMDB – 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 75%
Movie Wiseguys – 6.5/10