“Paranormal Activity” is a Blumhouse found-footage horror series released throughout the years 2009-2021. In my opinion, I found these movies extremely formulaic and sometimes boring, but I love them nonetheless. I highly recommend these movies for people who enjoy good found-footage movies, and some pretty solid scares. As a reminder, this is my personal ranking of these movies.
1. ) “Paranormal Activity 4”
After looking at multiple other ranking lists of the “Paranormal Activity” movies, I see this one at the bottom half, but I disagree. I really enjoyed this one! I thought this movie, while not perfect, had a lot of good things going for it. I liked the dynamic of the teen characters, Alex (Kathryn Newton) and Ben (Matt Shively). I also appreciate how weird Robbie (Bradley Allen) is. Socks and sandals were his look. Another thing I love about this movie is the use of the Xbox 360 Kinect, I haven’t seen anything like that before and allowed for some cool visuals. This movie also has some of my favorite scares, and the knife scene — so cool! Overall, the character dynamics, the humor and the scares make this my favorite by far. Also if you plan on watching this one, watch the extended version — trust me.
2.) “Paranormal Activity: The Marked ones”
“Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” is one of the “Paranormal Activity” movies that breaks its traditional formula, in the best ways possible. This movie has so many twists and turns, and it’s impossible to predict what will happen next. Everything, especially the ending, is crazy to the point where your jaw will be on the floor. Also, the characters genuinely feel real, so watching this story unfold makes it even scarier. Overall, I loved the humor of this one, the characters and the ending is just so good.
3.) “Paranormal Activity 3”
“Paranormal Activity 3” is such a solid movie on its own. If you didn’t watch the prior ones, you’d still enjoy it. I loved the cameras in this one and the use of the fan mechanism was so cool. The guy who plays Randy (Dustin Ingram) also plays one of the villains/bullies from “Sky High.” This has no influence on my review, I just think it’s a fun fact. On the topic of characters, I feel like “Paranormal Activity” movies tend to have well-developed and interesting characters, and “Paranormal Activity 3” is no different. Overall though, I did love this movie, but the ending was kind of meh compared to the others. If you’re going to watch any of these movies from this series, this is the one you should watch.
4.) “Paranormal Activity 2”
The kitchen scene and the girl getting locked outside made this movie but sadly didn’t save it. I’m not going to lie it took me half the movie to realize it was a prequel, but once I realized it, it made the movie more enjoyable. My biggest pet peeve was how insufferable the dad was, but it almost added a layer of realism to it. I really enjoyed the scares of this one, and like usual, the characters were good for the most part.
5.) “Paranormal Activity”
There are a few reasons why the first “Paranormal Activity” movie is so low on my list, and the first one is because its boring. As a whole, I felt this one was a little too “slow-burn” for my liking. Also, the boyfriend character was way too annoying and kind of ruined the movie at some points. What made me want to continue this series though was the ending, because like usual, it was the best part of the movie and showed potential.
6.) “Paranormal Activity: THE ghost dimension”
This one is extremely forgettable, so forgettable I forgot to add it to my“Summer ’23 Movies Ranked” list. I remember nothing of this movie besides that it takes place around Christmas and has a cool wall scene. Like most of the movies, the ending was cool, but besides that, this movie doesn’t have a lot going for it.
7.) “Paranormal Activity: Next of kin”
This movie gives off “Midsommar wanna-be” in the worst way possible. The vibe of this movie was completely off and didn’t feel like a “Paranormal Activity” movie at all. This tried to break the formula but failed miserably. I probably would have enjoyed this movie more if this wasn’t marketed as a “Paranormal Activity” movie since there are some good scares. There’s also this massive hole that they go down, and I thought that was sick. The ending was very entertaining too, but sadly that didn’t save the movie. Also one of my biggest complaints about this movie is that there is one shot that is not found footage, and it bugs me so bad. Overall, there’s stuff this movie did that was good, but as a whole, this movie was an awful “Paranormal Activity” movie.