Horror Movie Review: Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

This is the sixth Paranormal Activity & the fifth in the last 5 years, just let that sink in for a minute…

I hated this movie.

The Ghost Dimension is final entry in a series that should never have even had a sequel & promised that for the first time we were going to see the activity which puzzled me as what the hell where we seeing in the previous movies?

What they should have said was that this time we were going to show you every little detail, throwing subtleness out the window in return for awful, predictable jump scares & embarrassing 3D effects.

The movie opens showing an event from the third Paranormal Activity, the two young girls (Katie & Kristi) watch as their mother’s boyfriend’s back is twisted & broken. They go upstairs & meet a man who talks to them about the demon ‘Toby’ & how they are important to his plans.

Jumping to 2013, we meet Ryan, his wife Emily & their young daughter, Leila who are living in a house that was built on the same plot of land as the house Katie & Kristi lived in. Woooo…spooky.

Ryan’s brother, Mike comes to stay after getting dumped by his girlfriend & alongside Skylar the group are preparing to enjoy Christmas together. Things start getting weird (if that’s how you want to look at it) when Ryan finds a box of old videotapes & an unusual camera that can pick up ghostly images.

At the same time Leila has started talking to an imaginary friend that she calls ‘Toby’. Ryan sets up cameras to try & capture ghostly imagery & man, does he get enough material to pretty much confirm the existence of demons, ghosts & the supernatural. So of course he takes his family, calls in the ghostbusters & they live happily ever after, right?

Like fuck…as Leila becomes more & more withdrawn & spookier goings-on occur the parents seems to care less & less. Ryan is more interested in finding out details of the demon & the cult surrounding him & his wife is dismissive even when evidence to the contrary is shown to her.

Do you enjoy jump scares? Well, hold onto your hats because this film is obsessed with them. Every single attempted scare involves a loud noise & sudden jolt towards the screen. It got so bad that I was calling them out loud before they even happened! The lack of fear that anyone involved has here is laughable & that’s not because it’s playful or anything. Early on Ryan captures the snarling face of the Demon lunging towards him yet doesn’t really seem to be bothered by it at all.

If they can’t be bothered to react, why the hell would I as a viewer!?

The film’s jarring switches in tone are infuriating with one moment showing the black smoky figure of Toby with Leila to a more traditional Paranormal Activity scare as something moves when it shouldn’t. It tries to build tension after the initial jump scare…absolutely absurd.

Part of this movies problem lies in how unconvincing every single actor is. The acting is bad, really bad & as always the constant camera filming makes no sense. Why is Ryan filming himself & his brother preparing to watch home-made porn tapes!? I started to believe that there was actually something wrong with the pair.

All throughout I found myself throwing wild theories out there in the hope that they might come true so the movie would improve. Of course none of them did & you get a lacklustre ending that at least seems final even though it still leaves so many questions & loose ends.

The CGI is horrible & overused so they can have 3D effects come at you. I didn’t watch this in 3D but it reminds me of the 80’s style of 3D where something is coming at you constantly! When I hear people describe these scenes are terrifying I want to slap them so hard…I can make you jump, it doesn’t take any skill or effort. It is the laziest horror trope that exists today & the sooner this damn cycle of ghost/haunting horror ends, the better.

Thank the gods that we are one step closer with the end of the Paranormal Activity series. Don’t give me any crap about this being an alright movie, it’s not…it’s lazy story-telling with a nonsensical overall plot that has twisted itself up so badly that they can’t find the knot anymore. A CGI arm smashing through the back of a character & flapping at the screen isn’t scary, it’s child-like & this is definitely the worst of the series so far.

Do I really need to say anything more to convince to you stay away from this shite?