October Horror Challenge 2023 #6: "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones"

With the fourth movie in the series making a good amount of money (though still less than the original) it was inevitable that the studio would push for a sequel. This time around they tried to take a different track than the other movies and introduce us to some new characters who stumble upon the Paranormal Activity by accident and can't resist investigating the supernatural happenings until they're fully entangled in the events and unable to turn back. Idiots.

This movie took an even bigger departure from the first three movies than the fourth one did. Here the protagonists are a group of teenage friends who are looking forward to a fun summer after high school graduation until a neighbor of theirs is murdered and that shatters the peaceful facade of the summer. Two if the teens break into their neighbor's house and they discover some freaky supernatural crap, and instead of leaving it alone, they decide to investigate it farther, and they entangle themselves in a deadly supernatural game that they can't hope to win.

unlike the other people in the previous films, these teenagers are not doomed by familial obligations to be a part of the Paranormal Activity. They're not related to anyone from the first four movies, they're just nosy neighbors who stick their noses where they don't belong and then keep pursuing the issue until it's too late and they're trapped. It's hard to feel sorry fir them, but I guess I should, because my friends and I did some stupid things when we were teens, and if there was some kind of supernatural mystery happening around us, we would probably have involved ourselves in it too, trying to find answers, especially when it seems like one of the friends has some sort of superpowers and starts acting strange. It takes them way too long to realize that something supernatural is going on and it's probably dangerous and they should stay away from it. Soon it's too late and they have to try and figure out how to stop the evil force surrounding them before it's too late. the movie is ok, and as with the other movies the ending is pretty good, but you can definitely tell that the franchise is running out of steam and maybe it's time to put things to bed.