With the arrival of Paranormal
Activity: The Ghost Dimension, the sixth and supposedly final film in the
blockbuster found-footage franchise, now's as good a time as any to take stock
of what they've done right. And obviously they have, nearly $1B in sales can
attest to that, but they've also managed to build something long-lived out of
Oren Peli's simple "rattle the chandeliers" premise about a yuppie
couple trapped in a possessed home. More backstory has been ladled on with each
film, some of it more relevant than others, and upping the technology has
helped distract from the rather flat, vacant look. But if 'The Ghost Dimension'
confirms anything it's that better effects don't mean squat when you're fresh
out of ideas.
Series editor Gregory Plotkin takes the
directing reins and with him comes a technical sizzle the previous films have
lacked. Some of the best use of 3D this year reveals the looming, eerie
presence of the supernatural in another bland suburban family's home. They only
just moved in, but when the dorky dad and his brother discover an
oddly-customized video camera and a bunch of VHS tapes, all sorts of weird crap
starts happening. Turns out they belonged to another family, one with two
little girls involved in some kind of weird cult. Now this new family's
daughter is acting strangely and the fear is that the demon "Toby" is
coming to steal her away into the "ghost dimension", which looks a
lot like "The Further" from the Insidious films.
Never mind that Toby is hardly the
scariest name for an all-powerful demon, this is easily the least terrorized
family in the franchise's 6-year history, which is why their names are
irrelevant. The old tricks simply don't hold the same shock value they once
did. It used to be that we'd grip our armrests a little tighter when night
would fall because we knew something awful was going to happen. The slightest
movement of bedsheets or the slow rocking of a chair was enough to inspire
incredible tension, but that sensation is largely absent here. Bucking the
trends of pretty much every successful horror film, 'The Ghost Dimension' shows
us too much of the demon, thinking it'll still be scary as long as it's done in
3D. They're wrong, and that it looks like a blob of black licorice doesn't
help. The 3D effect becomes a crutch to be leaned on because there's no tension
to speak of. 
While the 3D is impressive, it's still not
good enough to justify paying more for it. Paramount Pictures seems to agree,
which is why they're also releasing the film on VOD in just a few weeks as part
of some special deal. Nobody should have to pay more for a ghost that does
little but tip see-saws and act as a girl's imaginary friend. Pretty dull.
If spending extra money to watch a little girl sleep is your
thing...well, then you've got bigger problems. There's a labored attempt
to connect this family's ordeal with what came before, but the whole thing is
tenuous at best and doesn't reward those who have been following along since the
beginning. And that is ultimately all Paranormal
Activity: The Ghost Dimension should
have been trying to do; rewarding the fans who have enjoyed getting scared out
of their minds. Instead, those fans will walk away perfectly calm and highly
disappointed, glad that the ghost dimension is also the final dimension.
Rating: 2 out of 5
