Paranormal Activity 3

Now officially a franchise, the camcorder creepshow series Paranormal Activity hasn’t yet crossed over into the realm of so many other horror movies stretched beyond their logical breaking point, namely that of the “all-new group of people who pay passing reference to the events of the original films while totally coincidentally reliving them exactly.” No, in this third edition, for better or worse, we’re still following doomed sisters Katie and Kristi Featherston, a premise that’s been extended by one-upping the Paranormal Activity 2 prequel to go even further back in time, revisiting the childhood haunting referenced in both predecessors.

Unfortunately for our snap judgment purposes, the preview doesn’t offer too much in the way of new footage—most likely because Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman were only given a few months to get something together by October—and what is there is mostly just the familiar calm before the similar storm. But of course, none of that matters, particularly. As long as Joost and Schulman can manage to replicate the formula just well enough to recoup the film’s modest budget again, then Paranormal Activity seems likely to continue well beyond this point—maybe by visiting the parallel experiences of the Featherston’s heretofore-unmentioned cousins, or through ultrasound footage of Katie and Kristi’s first brush with ghosts inside the womb.