The Marked Ones

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Why am I writing this? Because I'm bored, that's why.
As a fan of those paranormal "ghost hunting" shows (well, some of them) I was pleasantly surprised by the first Paranormal Activity movie. However, towards the end, PA made the same mistake nearly all horror movies make: they try and explain the supernatural. It's the explanation of how and why that decreases the mystery, breaking fear down into chunks of knowledge and understanding. 

What typically terrifies us isn't the what but the why. Jason (from the Friday the 13th franchise) is a man in a mask killing people for no discernible reason. And then they gave him a reason taking what made him terrifying away from the audience. Freddy Kruger (from A Nightmare on Elm Street fame) reached into your dreams, killing you where you were the most vulnerable ... and then they gave him a why making him just another killer on a revenge quest.

The people who keep making PA movies are falling into the same rut. What made the first movie so scary is what made Poltergeist scary, it could happen to you. And like Poltergeist, they eventually tried to explain it away, substituting disturbed graves for evil witches.

 The Marked Ones takes that storyline a bit further, trying to scare people with an 'it could be you , too' warning. Instead of one family, one child, the evil witches are out recruiting firstborns for their army of evil.

The movie, however, wasn't that scary. It had a couple of moments of shock, but nothing to get the blood pressure rising or make me look at those dark corners a little more intently. 

I'd miss it if you ever have the choice. Unless you're emotionally invested in the PA mythos and absolutely must follow the story.

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