…Soft, Like, Forever

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Team Review

No matter how much criticism they have received over the years, I’ve always enjoyed every one of Paranormal Activity films. Obviously some were better than others, but I still enjoyed them, nonetheless. Never getting a chance to see it in the theaters, I’ve finally watched Christopher Landon’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.

We all know the story by now, so I won’t get too much into detail as far as the plot is concerned. I will say, however, that the franchise creators have finally managed to breathe some new life into a series that a lot of people were growing tired of. While still dealing with the story they’ve established in previous films, the “first-born son” angle, the best thing Oren Peli and company could have done was introduce new characters to the fold. I wasn’t a big supporter of this ‘side-story’ approach when the film was first announced, but after finally watching it, I couldn’t agree more that this was the best thing to do. It allows viewers to get a little more invested in the story again and adds new characters that you can actually care about.

The actors playing Jesse, Hector, and Marisol, our three main characters, all did a great job. They were perfect as the curious high school kids, goofing around and getting into things they clearly shouldn’t have gotten into. They were funny at times, but still were able to be serious, when the time came for them to do so.

I can see where some people would find things to complain about and I’m sure we will see a bunch of parodies of this specific Paranormal Activity entry in the near future… can anyone say “Witches vs. Gangsters?” Even with those few small bumps in the road, I still really enjoyed this movie. After seeing the ending of the film, I may even go as far as to say that it is my favorite of the series.

If you’re a long time fan of the series and have stayed away from this one, thinking it wouldn’t live up to the rest, do yourself a favor, and watch it! The Marked Ones will not disappoint.

I give this film 4 newspaper clippings out of 5.


I want to start this off quasi positive and say that I was a big fan of the Paranormal Activity series…for about 2 and a half entries. It seems like for the last half of the third installment and the whole fourth film, the writers just kind of sat back and said “well, that’ll work… who cares how much sense it makes. We’ll fill the theaters and when the movie is over, everyone will hate it, but at least we will make our money back.” To me, The Marked Ones was no different. I was actually excited to see this one; I thought for sure this series was going to get back on track and make me a believer again. Wrong.

The director, Christopher Landon, had his work cut out for him trying to breathe life into this “thriving, yet dying” franchise. I never mind found footage films. In fact, I usually stick up for the lowest of the low-budget ones because at least they are working hard to convince an audience that “this one is different.”

The Marked Ones tries to tie everything together with one scene hoping all previous questions will be answered (like every single Saw sequel tried), except this only creates more questions. Without putting in any spoilers, I’ll just say and you can quote me on this, “the ending is fucking stupid” – Rottin’ Roger.

Being a part of the horror genre, you would think that the scares would either be plentiful or at least the build up to the climax would be intense, but this movie falls flat. Big time. At least with the original four, we follow somewhat of a formula — scary shit happens at night.

This movie abandons that concept and goes with the nothing happens, nothing happens, CGI eyeball gunk, nothing happens. TWIST.

Skip it. I give this film .5 churros out of 5.

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