October Horror Challenge 2023 #7: "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension"

This movie promised something that none of the other movies had done, and that was to show us the activity going on in the ghost dimension. We were supposed to see for the first time what's going on behind all the scary demonic crap that happens in these movies. Of course, what that means is this movie has to have a lot of expensive special effects to show us the demons, which kind of goes against the premise that made the first movie special: the barebones footage that could come from any of us and could be our neighbors or friends, the footage that looks so real it scares us just because it looks like something that could actually happen. I'm not opposed to special effects, but the movie does lose some of its charm with the addition of special effects. I really liked this movie in spite of the downsides, so we will see if it holds up on repeated viewings.

In this chapter of the story, a family (mom, dad, and 6 year old daughter) start experiencing some strange phenomena when they find a box of old VHS tapes of a family in the 80s. These tapes turn out to be the same ones recorded by the family from the third movie. They also find a video camera which still works, and they start using the video camera to record their own videos. Soon their daughter starts acting weird and they begin to suspect that she may be possessed by a supernatural being. Eventually they must decide what to do to try and save their little family before the evil takes their lives and their daughter's soul.

I like how this is the first family in the series to actually call a priest when the supernatural happenings in their home become too concerning. That would have been my first move when things started to go wonky. As with all found footage movies, it stretches the suspension of disbelief to see how the family keeps recording things with a camera way after you or I would have dropped it, but that's true of many found footage films. At least this family tries to fight back against the evil, first by calling a priest and later by leaving their house when things get too scary (which we know won't help from previous movies in the series, but at least they're making an effort). Now that all the jump scares are played out from watching the movie twice before, it's not as scary for me to watch now, but I still appreciated this movie, especially when the characters decide to hunker down and kick some demon butt. I still think this was a good way to wrap up the series, and at least they tried to answer some questions and tie the other films together. I think it's definitely worth a watch.