Movie Info
Movie Name: Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Studio: Blumhouse Productions
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): October 23, 2015
MPAA Rating: R
Why does everything cool have to be in night vision?
Ryan Fleege (Chris J. Murray) and his wife Emily (Brit Shaw) have just moved into a new home with their young daughter Leila (Ivy George). When they discover a box of video tapes from 1988 and an old camera, they find evidence of Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) first encounter with an entity of pure evil. Leila begins to talk about her friend Toby and strange events happen in the home. Ryan and Emily realize Leila is in real danger and could be the pawn of an evil plot spanning decades. Ryan, Emily, and Ryan’s brother Mike (Dan Gill) are about to learn the secret of Toby and could unwittingly unleash evil upon the Earth.
This hand through the chest is flying right at the screen…courtesy of 3D!
Directed by Gregory Plotkin, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is the sixth film in the franchise and (allegedly) the last in the series. Following Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was released in 3D with poor reviews and a rather low box office return.
The Paranormal Activity movies are tough. They do have jumps, but they are too easy and deliberate. They do have some ingenuity in shooting, but often fall into the “found footage” trap of poor camera work. They do have interesting plot concepts, but a majority of each film takes too long and doesn’t provide enough payoff…this is doubly true of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension since this is meant to be the culmination of a six film series.
Oh no! Lord Voldemort I mean Toby has been released!
The story does answer some questions, but for the most part, viewers (myself included) have lost any interest in knowing the answers. The posters proclaim “For the first time you will see the activity”…this comes too little too late with so many movies. The appearance (and apparent “birth”) of Toby by the end of the film was too little too late. If the movie shows the signs of the apocalypse, I expect the apocalypse after hours of watching the series. In addition to this, the main character Katie (who was the thrust of the series) isn’t even in the film really doesn’t receive much wrap up or resolution to her storyline.
Katie Featherstone couldn’t even bother to return for this entry which could have provided that wrap-up. Her younger self does appear, but a new family is the star. I will say that the films generally do a good job of hiring “normal” people that don’t seem to be heavily acting (a necessity for “found footage” to work for me)…the series has come a long way from the obnoxious Micah from Paranormal Activity.
My Toby…someone’s been hitting the leg press.
The movie unfortunately doesn’t feature any innovations in the style format. Yes, you get to see a monster (who pretty much looks like Lord Voldemort), but once again it is too little too late. Other entries in the series at least played with different shooting styles to build suspense and horror…this entry was same-old-same-old.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is a cheap, easy sequel that fortunately rings in at under one and a half hours. Unfortunately, you have to wait for over an hour for anything to really happen. This is the trend of the series and ultimately its downfall. I can’t say I hate the films (they are average horror), but I’ve never been widely impressed by them either…I think the series peaked with Paranormal Activity 3 (which is probably my favorite entry…and the most tied to this film).
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