Review

Jesse has just graduated high school and with friends Hector and Marisol is out to enjoy his summer, I assume before College kicks off. He is rocking on with a new video camera turning the working class Latino neighbourhood of Oxnard California into a movie set. Jesse and Hector seem overly interested in Anna who lives downstairs from the apartment Jesse shares with his father, grandmother, and sister. Anna is more than a little strange and is rumoured to be a bruja, a witch. Anna seems to be conducting strange rituals at night rather than watching The Walking Dead like any normal person.

Strangely Anna is apparently murdered, and it looks like the valedictorian from Jesse's old High School, Oscar, might have killed her, which makes Jesse and Hector decide to play detective and check out Anna's apartment. They find a room splashed with blood, a collection of videotapes including ones of Katie and Kristi, and nothing else of much interest. Later Jesse and Hector take a couple of girls from a party to Anna's former abode with no doubt some sinning on their minds, and of course one thing leads to another and they discover a secret basement. Seems Anna involved herself in a spot of black magic and demon summoning with Jesse being a star attraction of her Satanic alter. Jesse ends up having quite the experience in the basement and starts to go through changes, but not in a good way. The scare factor is back as Paranormal Activity shows it still has sharp teeth and is prepared to bite!

Movie five in the extraordinary successful Paranormal Activity franchise takes a major side step from the previous four movies, but to the relief of the fans does add some needed information on what is going on. We are in a Latino neighbourhood in 2012. For once we have moved beyond Katie and Kristi's extended family, but events in the previous four movies do have a major role to play with what goes down in Marked Ones. I got to say for once the franchise moves into some new territory, there's a fair degree of humour in the movie and the male leads that aren't complete tools. I'm not going to give spoilers out in this review, standard policy around here, but if a fan of the franchise then you really do need to catch this movie, fingers crossed the standard is kept up in Paranormal Activity 5, due for release in October this year.

As expected Marked Ones continues in the found footage format the previous movies have all been shoot in. And yes there is camera shakes, which I must admit for the first ten or so minutes was making me nauseas. I was also once again wondering why neither Jesse nor Hector decided to either turn on or off their camera light as the situation demanded, or ever thought of putting the damned thing down. If you are trying to pull a wooden board off a window then you are probably going to do a better job using both hands rather than using one hand and filming the process. For once however we aren't talking multiple cameras, CCTV, or any other source of images. Remembering this is a lower class Latino neighbourhood it was refreshing to see people weren't spending their minimum wage earnings on high tech surveillance equipment. So if you haven't got your sea legs on yet with found footage, which continues to demonstrate North Americans never ask for camera stabilisers, then you may want to go out to the concession stand during the initial introduction of the characters.

Christopher Landon, who worked on the previous three movies in the franchise, demonstrates that he may have been listening to criticism levelled at the movies. For once we have engaging male characters who you don't want to die at the movie's earliest convenience. Jesse and Hector are likeable and the chemistry between the lads is palpable. I must admit for the first time in this franchise I was concerned about what might happen to our focal characters, I wanted both Jesse and Hector to make it through to the closing credits. No spoilers y'all, watch the movie to find out how that works out. Equally I was digging Marisol who holds up the female end of the bargain. Landon establishes his characters, gets the audience to like them, and then in time honoured horror fashion puts them in harm's way. It's been quite a while, well okay since I caught Apocalyptic, that I've really had sympathy for found footage leads. Maybe the sub genre is growing up and taking on the full mantel of being a legitimate horror medium? We'll see how Landon goes with the next movie later in the year.

Very solid entry in a franchise that is trying to build a mythology and tie it altogether

Also helping out is some explanation on the Coven that seems tied into the demonic activity plaguing middle class and now Latino neighbourhoods in the U.S. We learn exactly what the Witches are trying to achieve, no spoilers, but not why. Equally, and I was appreciative of this, we dial into some of their practices and how come certain people are being targeted. It's not as random as we first thought, once again no spoilers. Providing exposition on what is going down in a cameo is Ali Rey, who the sharp eyed will remember from Paranormal Activity 2. Ali has become quite the expert on the coven and offers some salient warnings to Jesse and Hector. So if your main bitch with the last movie was the lack of plot forward motion, you don't get out much do you? - then rest assured you get a butt load as Landon moves the franchise forward with one hell of a giant leap.

Please note heavy spoiler in this paragraph, skip if you haven't seen the movie. Still with me? Good, I was slightly miffed by the movie's explanation of the marked ones, anyone else think the concept was lifted kicking and screaming from Supernatural? This was reinforced for me when Jesse got his Chronicle on with the two would be muggers, and was there a hint of Poltergeist as Jesse and Hector got all excited by Jesse's new found super powers, again more than a hint of the Yellow Eyed Demon's plan in Supernatural.

For those wondering about the scare factor, Landon has your back. We get the usual things that go bump in the night, sudden appearances of dimly seen shapes, and a pretty harrowing basement excursion by Jesse. Also adding fun to your choc top is an appearance by the younger Katie and Kristie, the Coven of witches - that was a real hoot as the Latinos are packing heat, and in a surprise development the adult Katie and Micah! Don't worry it all makes sense through the use of a portal, which apparently leads anyone that goes through it to a diabolic place, that allows a certain degree of time travel. Whoa, pull up to bumper Captain Kirk, is this even a good idea? While I grooved to the Marked Ones sitting nicely in the overall franchise there were a few times that I wondered if some of the plot elements being introduced to the Paranormal Activity franchise are going to be of benefit in the long run?

Okay the one thing I haven't mentioned is the demonic Toby, he sort of makes an appearance, well as much an appearance as an unseen entity can anyways. The focal point recently seems to be moving from Toby to the Coven, but heck the playful entity isn't going quietly into that dark night. Besides the changes Jesse is going through, standing motionless a couple of times reminded me of Katie's night time habits in the first movie, we also get an old Simon Says game becoming an impromptu Ouija board, remembering one of the central rules in this franchise is you don't try and make contract with the paranormal entity. During the chaotic final block of the movie Marisol would appear to have become Toby's latest chew toy in the coven house. It has to be said that throughout the movie Toby casts a shadow, without having to destroy a neat and tidy kitchen in the process.

So yeah I'm signing off on the scare tactics in use during the movie, we get plenty of creepy atmosphere and Landon is laying on the tension during some of the scenes. Oh and before I forget we also get some T&A going down for the first time in the franchise which up to now has been carried by Katie Featherston's rack. Gorehounds are still apt to be disappointing, maybe Eli Roth is currently butchering a movie for you?

After the fourth movie sort of disappointed I was wondering whether or not it was going to be worth my while to catch Marked Ones in the cinema. Usually by the time a fifth movie rolls around in a franchise things have gotten to the ludicrous stage of the cinematic cannon. I made a snap decision to catch the movie on release day, and for the first time caught the very first session at my local multiplex. I had three major reasons for a cinema viewing. Firstly I have caught all the other movies in the franchise on the big screen, secondly Marked Ones was the first horror movie of 2014 released in Australia, and finally we invariably have a few beers prior to catching the movies. Unfortunately the final reason fell through as my wing man decided to wait on DVD. The session I attended, mid afternoon on a Thursday, involved a solid enough turn out by the punters, surprisingly the majority of them being young teen chicks. Further surprise was added by a general lack of mobile phones being in use during the movie, which indicates patrons were grooving to the visuals. The audience I sat with seemed to enjoy the movie, laughed at the right places - there was plenty of humour in this one, and we had a solid phalanx of screamers during the scary parts. In short the movie seemed to work for the target audience, though I must admit to yawning during the middle block as the pacing dragged.

Okay my final thoughts on Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. The franchise is in good health with this movie rivalling the first and third movies. The horizons have been expanded with lots of scenes outside the major locations, which was a well needed development for mine. Anyone saying found footage is a craze that is dying clearly isn't keeping up with the number of movies being pumped out recently using the format, with Marked Ones demonstrating the tactic can be used effectively and precisely. I was also more than impressed with the likeable and multi dimension lead characters. Overall I was really pleased with the movie, it did exactly what it set out to do, and besides being a bit lacking in pace during the middle block was a fun ride. It's become fashionable to slam the Paranormal Activity franchise online; I'm going against the grain and saying full recommendation. This is one horror movie that does what it should do, actually scare the audience. Bring on Paranormal Activity 5, I'm there on opening night!