‘Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin’ Review
Stars: Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Henry Ayres-Brown, Tom Nowicki, Jill Andre, Alexa Shae Niziak, Colin Keane, Ari Notartomaso | Written by Christopher Landon | Directed by William Eubank
I’ve always enjoyed the Paranormal Activity franchise. Obviously, the likes of Friday the 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scream are more popular with horror fans. But even franchises such as Saw and Hellraiser are talked about more than the Paranormal Activity movies. And this is a shame because on the quality of films alone, Paranormal Activity is right at the top of the pile and there’s been no bigger found footage movie since The Blair Witch Project. It was safe to say that I was looking forward to Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin.
In Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Margot travels to an Amish community to see her family and ask questions about her past after her mother abandoned her as a baby. She decides to make a documentary out of the experience with a couple of friends along to film it.
Maybe my biggest complaint here is that it doesn’t feel like a Paranormal Activity movie, and in fact, unless there was some small clue I missed, I don’t think it connects in any way to the previous movies (although I’m sure if there are future sequels this could be explained). I’m okay with trying something different with what is the seventh film in the franchise, and the setting alone makes it stand out from the rest. But the documentary style does the same because it feels more like a ‘traditional’ found footage movie such as The Blair Witch Project. This often feels like an extended segment of one of the V/H/S movies. Without too much in the way of static camera shots, that Paranormal Activity style disappears a little.
The first hour runs by pretty slowly with little in the way of scares. This isn’t unusual but I wanted a little bit more, it’s at its best when it does Paranormal Activity things. When there’s silence and you’re waiting for something to happen or when that night vision appears. But Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin really comes into its own in the final third. Things get ramped up, the pace quickens and the scares become more frequent. There’s a lot to enjoy in these final thirty minutes.
The big reveal is suitably terrifying and the shots are perfect at not giving away too much. The story starts coming together, there’s blood and gore, things set on fire, horrible deaths, it all comes to a very exciting conclusion. Strangely, at times the movie seems to briefly scrap the found footage aspect for a more ‘cinematic’ effect, which produces some really cool looking moments but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. And in that aspect, it falls into the same mistakes that the worst found footage films make. Mainly, characters continue to film when there is no reason for them to be doing so. It’s actually putting them in danger to do so. There are moments when the characters make an effort to put the camera down but not always. I completely understand why these choices are made but it didn’t always work for me.
This instalment is directed by William Eubank, who is coming off of the really good kind-of-aquatic horror Underwater and there’s no doubt Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin looks great – the shots in the snow are great. And writer Christopher Landon is back in the franchise after the recent hit Freaky. So you can see why he’d want to put a new spin on things, something he and the director definitely achieve.
When it’s good, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin is really good but there’s a whole lot of average here too. That said, I’d be very happy for this to kick-off a new branch on the Paranormal Activity tree. Found footage horror is still very much alive and kicking.