Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

Paranormal Activity is one of those franchises that most have heard of, but not kept up with. The first movie did great, good reviews and a lot of people saw it. However as they went along, the formula staid the same, and most people quickly grew bored and stopped watching. We are now on the 6th film, and the final film in this story. It does make some radical changes to the formula, while still keeping the final product roughly the same. And while I enjoyed that, I am not sure it actually helped them any. I am a fan of these films, I have seen them all. And I have enjoyed the story they tell, as all of them are linked together even if they do have 20 years between them.

The following is a short summary of the previous films which I have all seen once at release, so it may not be 100% accurate, but it is very close.

The first Movie was about Katie, she was living with her fiance or husband or something. The movie ended with her becoming possessed by a demon and killing the love interest, and left the house. We did not see where she went, and the movie made note that the police never found her. The second story was about her sister. She had a kid named Hunter, the demon wanted the kid. The movie ended with a failed possession as the family was able to cast the demon out of the mother. Katie then comes into the house, kills the family and takes the kid. You start to see how the connection works. We get a movie about the two sisters as kids next, and we see their grandmother force them into a witch coven which kills their parents and starts to prepare them for their demonic possession later in life. There is another film where Hunter is now slightly older and with a different family, the demon comes back for him as they now have actual need for him. We get a spin off where we learn there are multiple kids all born the same day, the sixth day of the sixth month, of the sixth year of the century....666, they are marked and needed for the demon to become whole and gain a physical body in this world. This movie was a spin off, and really did not tie into the story to much, but it gave a lot of great details. The ending had the two sisters when they were little show up, even though it was in modern times. We also saw a crazy scene where the main characters raided the witch's coven to get one of their friends back. One of them is being chased and runs through a door which drops them off in the house from a earlier film, and we see older Katie and other people from earlier films. That movie gave the details that the coven and the demon had the ability to travel through time, as well as locations using set points. Magic doors that were linked, that was a very integral part to this film.

Ghost Dimension is about a family that just moved into a house, a big amazing looking house that was a deal to good to be true. They have a young daughter named Leila, and the both the wife and the husband have their sibling staying over for the holidays. It takes place at Christmas, and like the others it is all told with found footage. If you are not familair with that term, it basically means home video style. Most movies are shot as if you are looking through a camera, or as if the camera is not there. These are shot as if somebody was making their own film, and you are looking at the result. A character is holding the camera and filming, and you are seeing the movie they make. Think Blair Witch or Cloverfield.

The two brothers find a old box with a camera from the 80's and some home videos. The camera still works and they clean it up and try it out. They can see a weird distortion in their house that seems to be moving around, but you can not make out what it is. This is where Ghost Dimension differs from previous films. The camera is a spirit camera and allows them to see the demon. It is weak the begining, but as the movie goes on it grows stronger through interacting with them and takes on a more solid form. It was neat to finally see the demon, and I really enjoyed the change from before where you would just have a invisible entity terrorizing people. However it did lesson the fear, as you could see things coming and it was not a surprise anymore. Still it was unique for the franchise, and for the final film it accomplished something the fans have been wanting. The demon's name is Tobi, and fans have wanted to see and know more about Tobi, now we have.

If you remember the ending to the third or the flashback film, well you know the ending to this one. This is where those movies finally tie together. Also if you saw any of the other films, well you know how this one ends because they are all the same. That being said we do get some cool moments out of this one that fans will enjoy. They try to kill the demon at one point, a sort of super exorcism I guess. We get a creepy santa, and a great moment where you first see Tobi's face. I would say there were more memorable moments in this film the prior ones, and they really did go big for the grand finale. If you have stuck with the franchise this far, check it out. You deserve to see the ending, and you get to see some more backstory about the sisters and the coven.

If you are a newcomer, well it may not really be your thing. It was not exactly scarey, and the little details will be lost on you. You won't care about the sisters, or really know what is going on with the doorways or coven. You can still follow it all, but you will be missing key details.