10 Awesome Movie Scenes Trapped In Awful Movies

6. The Witches (Paranormal Activity 4)

the witches Paranormal Activity 4 ending
Paramount Pictures

Think of all the worst elements of modern horror, and you'll find them in the abysmal Paranormal Activity 4. Jump scares that are only "scary" because someone turned up the volume dial. Stupid, unlikable characters who make dumb decisions. Annoyingly selective ghouls who only seem to move objects for dramatic effect. It's about as bland and by-the-numbers as found footage flicks can get.

But its biggest crime is that nothing really happens. Every now and then the odd chandelier or knife will move of its own accord, but other than that, the movie is completely devoid of interesting events. Things do start to liven up in the final ten minutes, but by that point, Paranormal Activity 4 was beyond saving.

On the plus side, those closing minutes are actually quite great. While searching for her dad, protagonist Alex finds him being dragged around a house by an invisible force, before everything goes eerily quiet, and she's attacked by a possessed Katie. Desperate to survive, Alex flees through a nearby window, before being greeted by an army of evil witches, who attack her before she can escape.

Those short bursts of genuine terror - Alex's dad yelling, Katie's attack, the appearance of the witches - interspersed with prolonged moments of silence is a technique that will make your skin crawl, and unlike the bulk of the movie, the danger feels real, immediate, and inescapable, which - in Alex's case - ultimately turns out to be true.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!