MovieChat Forums > Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) Discussion > How did a once mighty franchise go out w...

How did a once mighty franchise go out with such a whimper?

posted 9 years ago by VidaBoheme
8 replies | jump to latest

In the world of horror franchises, mismanagement and lack of care happens a lot and it's sad. I think the biggest faults here are:

Paranormal Activity Part 4 killed any momentum the franchise had by not moving the storyline forward or giving any answers. Plus boring characters no one cared about and too many lame jump scares.

The Marked Ones actually gave us one great answer (time portals), but the movie was billed as a "spin-off" of the franchise. But oddly, it had more to do with the PA franchise than Part 4!

The writers didn't pace out the mystery and answers in an effective way and the audience got bored and moved on to other things.

I remember when Parts 2 and 3 came out and it was event viewing. Now the last installment didn't even crack the Top 5 for its opening weekend and the theaters aren't even full (I had no more than 10 people in my theater).

Very sad. RIP Paranormal Activity Franchise!

[–] treycook 9 years ago

Once mighty? I'm not sure I would go that far. The previous movies were reasonably entertaining, though.

[–] OneFilmLover 9 years ago

Yeah, I wouldn't say this series was ever "mighty" but I agree that Paranormal Activity 4 effectively killed most people's interest in the series in one fell swoop.

PA3 was actually an effective horror movie with fun scares that actually worked well as a spook flick. I remember seeing that on a Friday night with a packed audience & it WORKED. We were all ready for the next movie!
Then a year later PA4 came out & I saw it at the same theater on a Friday night also with a packed audience & it was a disaster.
Just silence. People were upset when the film came out & I was so disinterested in any future movies that I just skipped The Marked Ones.

The problem was they set up a compelling mythology with the third movie that people wanted to see them pursue & instead we got PA4, a movie that doesn't add one new single thing to the story they were telling except a last second "Oh, it's a coven of witches" reveal. Then PA4 even had a teaser for The Marked Ones.

People aren't inherently stupid. They can tell when they're being fleeced. With PA3, audiences had a great time & were given a story they wanted to see continued. With PA4, audiences realized that Paramount was willing to drag this cheap cash out out for as long as audiences kept paying to see it. They revealed themselves as hucksters who each October were going to say "The New Paranormal Activity reveals something so shocking you won't believe it!" & then the movie was going to be the same thing with one insignificant detail added to the grander narrative. So the audience did what they always do when they realized they're being treated as dumb sheep - they rejected it. It didn't help the franchise that found footage is not the genre where you can WOW people back to theaters. They tried with The Marked Ones going "full Chronicle" & then doubled down on selling gimmicks with the third one being the FINAL movie & the FIRST FOUND FOOTAGE MOVIE IN 3D!!!!

Give it a few years & I promise they'll take another stab at Paranormal Activity only as a traditional narrative film with a few found footage gags.

There. It's on the Internet. Thus it's official

[–] luig29 9 years ago

Actually the PA movies have been quite successful at the box office putting them right there with the Scream and Saw franchises.

[–] BlueRaven_02 9 years ago

That's what happens when Hollywood becomes money hungry turds. They ruin movies.

[–] mgreen9715 9 years ago

$$$$$ talks. Anything for a quick buck. Do you think in the end a lot of writers/creators care about the quality? Doubt it. A lot of them end up being greedy *beep*

[–] Shadowkisss 9 years ago

In my opinion the one that didn't fit with the others was The Marked ones, apart from that one they are all pretty similar and it is the same formula for all of them. I thought Ghost dimension was as good as the first ones, if not better (if anything I thought the first one was the slowest of them all), its just that people might be getting tired of the franchise, maybe for the reason I mentioned, i.e. similarities between them.

Either way maybe its just me but I still like the franchise, all the movies have been entertaining.

[–] woozle_wuzzle 9 years ago

I thought Ghost dimension was as good as the first ones, if not better

LMFAO is this damn kid serious? XD

[–] gladoscake 9 years ago

...It'd have to strongly disagree with 'Ghost Dimension being as good or better than the others' mostly due to how they scrapped the Mythology from the others and turned Toby into the Antichrist, and a time travel ending that breaks the entire franchise as having Toby human in 1992 means that he couldn't of been in the other films as unseen and invisible, but if those films couldn't of happened, the Ghost Dimension couldn't of happened,
see the issue here? and if Katie and Kristi brought Toby to the World via human body then what about Paranormal Activity 1 - 4? how can Kristi and Katie be haunted by Toby when he has a human body in the girls childhood years, it makes NO sense at all.