Why It Wasn't Scary: The prevailing problem with the fourth Paranormal movie is that it once again holds audiences at arm's length from the mystery introduced in the second film, where Katie (Katie Featherston) kidnaps young Hunter and disappears into the night. This should have been the central premise of the fourth movie, but due to the filmmakers thinking themselves much cleverer than they actually are, Katie is really just a small component of PA4 until the end of the film, instead focusing on another irritating family of saps who, of course, have zero chance of surviving the movie. By number four, the shocks are no longer shocking, and the locked-off, blue-hued night-time glimpses of doors creaking just feels thoroughly boring, because everything interesting that can be done with that formula has been. One notoriously "scary" scene revolving around the Xbox Kinect is also a laughably blatant advertisement. How To Improve It: Shift the focus from new characters we couldn't give a damn about to following the Katie-Hunter disappearance story for the entirety. Get rid of the repetitive situations, egregious product placement and played-out style, and actually move the series' mythology forward rather than spinning the wheels.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
