I'll be honest, I don't know why I bothered watching this. I didn't like the first two and had little hopes for the third installment but I thought that maybe, just maybe, this would be better. I have insomnia, but even this could have helped me to sleep.

Paranormal Activity 3 was directed by (not the directors of previous Paranormal Activity films, though I believe they're now working on a 4th instalment). It helps, or at least should, if you've seen the previous flicks to get an idea of the premise. This one takes us to 1988, with a happy family consisting of a mum (Julie, played by Lauren Bittner), dad (Dennis, played by Christopher Nicholas Smith) and two young girls (Katie and Kristi). This is a prequel really to the latter films that see the two girls as women, so we now discover that the 'paranormal activity' surrounding their adult years started far earlier.

So, as the usual scenario goes, there's a video camera. Enter the dad, a wedding photographer with his own little studio at home. He sets up a camera and for the majority of the film therefore we see events unfold through this lens. He wants to document daily activities but ends up recording more than he bargained for.

The quiet life of this happy family is disturbed when some eerie goings on start to occur. Cue things moving of their own will, doors shutting, lights flicking etc. The usual ghostly drama. Unsure whether to believe there's really anything unusual going on, the couple continue as normal until they no longer can. The girls are the recipients of the ghostly mystery, with some sort of entity plaguing and taunting them in particular.

I won't say any more on the premise but it's very straight forward. Two girls being haunted, and the whole family is involved in the ghostly shenanigans. Why? Well, this is partly unveiled towards the end even though it didn't make much sense to me. Since the 2007 original, small bits of the puzzle have been gradually put in to place, but again, I don't think it's very obvious or makes a great deal of sense partly because of the way it's done. It's not particularly clear who's who and why things are happening, which is a little frustrating.

On to the acting. Mediocre is probably how I'd describe it; the parents are okay in their roles but not really engaging enough or developed with enough depth to make them shine out. The girls are very young but there aren't any award winning performances. For their age, they are okay, but I still didn't find them particularly easy or realistic to watch for the most part.

You could argue that this film is more about the atmospheric tension built up rather than the acting, even though I think this does account for a fair bit of the atmosphere. The shaky camera shots, static scenes, slow pan angles are done fairly well without being too irritating (unlike the Blair Witch project was at times). However, I didn't find the camera work, lighting or events to build enough tension to make this full of suspense or frights. I actually just found it very boring and lack lustre.

This flick doesn't add anything new to the genre but I wasn't expecting it to. I was hoping for a little more engagement, but instead I found it to be boring, not jumpy or high tension in the least and I'm still wondering why they're bothering to make a 4th.

DVD released 2012, rated Certificate 15
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