With others such as As Above, So Below(2014) and V/H/S(2012), the Blumhouse Productions franchise continues to prove to be one of their most popular and profitable horror IPs. Generally, the Paranormal Activity films assisted in popularizing the found-footage subgenre of horror films in the 2000s and 2010s.
Leahy visual effects supervisor, Woei Hsi Lee visual effects, Atomic Fiction special effects coordinator, Mark Gullesserian stunt coordinators, David Rowden, Charlie Croughwell assistant directors, Mark Anthony Little, Dale Stern casting, Carla Hool.Īndrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Gabrielle Walsh, Renee Victor, Noemi Gonzalez, David Saucedo, Gloria Sandoval, Richard Cabral, Carlos Pratts, Juan Vasquez.The franchise shares a basic premise: supernatural occurrences that are caught "found-footage" - such as security systems, webcams, and even a Kinect system in Paranormal Activity 4. Camera (color), Gonzalo Amat editor, Gregory Plotkin production designer, Nathan Amondson set decorators, Teresa Visinare, Julie Ochipinti costume designer, Marylou Lim sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat), Walter Anderson, Ed Novick, Steve Nelson re-recording mixers, Joe Dzuban, Daniel J. Executive producer, Steven Schneider.ĭirected, written by Christopher Landon, based on the film “Paranormal Activity” by Oren Peli. Running time: 84 MIN.Ī Paramount release and presentation of a Blumhouse, Solana Films, Room 101 production. Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, Jan. A very meta twist ending promises to either open up new narrative possibilities, or else push the franchise deep into a self-referential rabbit hole, when “Paranormal Activity 5” arrives later in the year.įilm Review: ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones’ The haunted-house setpieces provide reliable doses of jolts, even if one can see the scaffolding of each scare being built from miles away, and director Landon has fun with some clever camera placement here and there. Replacing the typical Ouija board with a haunted Simon game is sure to provoke howls of laughter from those in the appropriate age bracket, and the idea that a victim of demonic possession would rush to YouTube to show off his gnarly new abilities - and be promptly torn to shreds by comment-section trolls - is sadly in keeping with the times. While the film hardly plays it coy about where this is all heading, it doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get there, and it springs a number of smart ideas along the way. Being teenage boys, they’re far too intrigued by the boobs on display to fret over the obvious occult ritual taking place, but when Anna is subsequently murdered, they decide to attempt some amateur late-night sleuthing, with predictably unpleasant results. The first complication comes from Jesse’s elderly downstairs neighbor, Anna (Gloria Sandoval), whose reclusive behavior is strange enough for Hector to postulate that “maybe the bitch is a bruja.” The two attempt to spy on her by lowering a camera down through a ventilation shaft, where they witness Anna scrawling arcane symbols on the belly of a nude younger woman.
Fortunately, Jacobs and Diaz boast an easy “Beavis and Butt-head”-esque chemistry throughout, making for pleasant company as the audience waits for the inevitable horrors to befall them.
Seemingly possessing no greater postgrad ambitions than milling around and attempting “Jackass” stunts with their omnipresent video camera, Jesse and Hector harass Jesse’s abuela (Renee Victor), smoke pot, play basketball, occasionally run afoul of some local gangsters, draw penises on one another’s faces, and generally bust each other’s balls for a decent chunk of the film. Set in gritty Oxnard, Calif., the film boasts an almost entirely Latino cast of characters - a welcome gesture toward a huge filmgoing demographic that rarely gets to see itself onscreen - while smart casting and production design help capture the flavor of the environs with only moderate deployment of cultural stereotypes. Kicking off with a high-school graduation, “The Marked Ones” centers on likably lunkheaded teenage buddies Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz), as well as Jesse’s tag-along relative Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). At this point, the conventions and limitations of the found-footage horror film are almost as well worn and cliched as those of horror pics at large: “Put down the camera, stupid!” has now probably been shouted at just as many screens as “Don’t go down into the basement!” (Look for “Tilt your viewfinder 20 degrees to the left!” to finally supplant “Look out behind you!” within the present decade.) Appropriately, the hapless heroes of “The Marked Ones” never put down the camera even as they venture into dark basements, or struggle to start a stalled car, or split up in the middle of a haunted mansion - and it’s to the credit of the film’s primary cast that these bits of genre-appropriate stupidity generate more laughs than groans.
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