So I wasted my time on the latest Paranormal Activity movie subtitled The Ghost Dimension (part 6… sshhhh!). This one promises you would enter the ghost dimension and learn what the heck has been going on over the past 5 movies (since the series is inexplicably linked in continuity). The poster shows an entry way into a creepy other ghost world… and someone does finally go through that portal at about the 85 minute mark. And apparently the Ghost Dimension is a $10 special effect followed immediately by the set from one of the earlier movies. The title and the marketing is just a lie.
Not that it mattered because this was just a bad movie without whatever cheap but effective scares or even the somewhat monotonous-but-kind-of-suspenseful static camera shots from the earlier flicks (yes, I’ve found something decent in all the previous movies, not that I’m recommending each of them).
The basic gimmick behind this one is that a family moves into a new house (not one from the previous flicks) and find a mysterious 80s era camcorder and a bunch of video tapes. The old camera has been modded to record the spirit world and, indeed, when it’s used, we can see ghostly black shapes lurking around and giving us jump scares. The old video tapes are, amusingly enough, the previous Paranormal Activity movies… guess we found who found the footage maybe? So we get scenes of people watching people experience spooky events and then a moment where the characters record themselves watching the past events and then watching and recorded themselves rewatching the video of them watching the old video.
Yo dawg, I heard you like Paranormal Activity so we put Paranormal Activity in your Paranormal Activity so you can watch Paranormal Activity while watching Paranormal Activity.
Anyhow, this movie is pretty much garbage without even the limited spook show value of the earlier movies. Apparently they decided this was the last movie and given how well it did last and this weekend, it might be true. Unlike, you know, when they made the final Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and they made money so they kept on making new ones. I think we’re safe this time. <crosses fingers>
Score: 58