Last night Paramount revealed the first full trailer for Paranormal Activity 4 while at the same time premiering an early cut of the film at Fantastic Fest 2012. Considering Paramount doesn’t reveal plot points and the trailers only suggest something spooky happens to people in their houses — this time an Xbox Kinect goes rogue — all we have are these early reactions to go by and one in particular makes me nervous.
Tim Buel, who hosts FirstShowing.net’s podcast wrote on Twitter, “[Paranormal Activity 4] doesn’t work. At all. Work print aside, it’s boring, silly and does NOTHING for the mythology. Disappointed after the awesome [Paranormal Activity 3].”
A similar comment from budding horror director Aaron Morgan, bothered by the lack of exploration of the franchise’s mythology, goes on to say, “Paranormal Activity 4 is sadly just a repeat of Part 2. I liked part 3 because it pushed the mythology into new places. PA4 is dog paddling.”
I did not like Paranormal Activity 2 and when Movies.com writer John Gholson writes, “[Paranormal Activity 4] is the most legit funny installment, and strangely the most violent,” it makes me feel as if that’s exactly what we’re in for.
Of course, speculation looms suggesting this may be another situation like the last film in which a lot of footage was shot, used for early screenings and trailers, but won’t be seen in the final cut of the film, which doesn’t hit theaters until October 19, giving them plenty of time to move things around. Problem is, while you can possibly make the film scarier, can you inject more of the franchise’s mythology if it’s already missing that element?
Check out the new trailer below.
