1. It's the First Real Sequel to the Original Movie
As you may recall, the events of Paranormal Activity 2 ran mostly parallel to the first installment, while PA3 was a genuine prequel that took place 20 years earlier in the late '80s. PA4 finally moves the story forward, jumping ahead from 2006 -- when the angry poltergeist first showed up at California home owned by Katie (Katie Featherstone) and Micah (Micah Sloat), leaving him dead and her possessed -- to 2011. In the five years since the demon-inhabited Katie absconded with her infant nephew, Hunter (making sure to kill the rest of his family, including her sister Kristi, in the process), she's relocated to Nevada, where she shares a ranch-style house with a kid we're led to assume is the slightly older Hunter, now going as Robbie (Brady Allen). But they aren't the central players in this paranormal drama. No, much of the story unfolds in the split-level home across the street, inhabited by your seemingly typical nuclear family: a mom (Alexondra Lee), a dad (Stephen Dunham), a beautiful 15-year-old teenager Alex (Kathryn Newton) and a cute-as-a-button 6-year-old boy Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp). When Katie goes to the hospital under mysterious circumstances, Robbie becomes a temporary lodger in their house and -- wouldn't you know it? -- spooky things start happening. At first, it's little stuff: Robbie chats with an invisible pal, knives disappear from kitchen countertops and Alex hears strange bumps in the dead of night. But over the course of a few weeks, the paranormal activity manifests itself in more serious ways as whatever's in the house seems eager to win over Wyatt and do away with his sister. Why? Well, that's the sole surprise that PA4 offers, so I won't give it away here. Suffice to say, it looks like Demon Katie will finally achieve her long-term goal... in the next movie.

2. It's Made for the Skype Generation
Each PA installment has employed different kinds of cameras to capture the "authentic" found footage we're watching. The original was mostly filmed with a high-end Sony camcorder, PA2 consisted of lots of home security camera footage, while the '80s set PA3 used an old-school VHS camcorder. Since PA4 takes place in 2011 and is largely told from the perspective of Alex and her computer-savvy pal -- and would-be boyfriend -- Ben (Matt Shively), the whole idea of a standalone video camera is passé. Instead, the paranormal activity is filmed via the camera embedded in Alex's laptop and the rest of the computers lying around her house. Using his tech expertise, Ben rigs all of the laptops to record what's happening and save the footage as Quicktime files that he and Alex can review later. (He knows how to do this because he records all of his video chats with Alex, another sign of how seriously he's crushing on her.) The idea of a horror movie shot almost entirely on a laptop is an intriguing one and certainly makes sense considering who the main characters in this installment are. But it's also an extremely limiting conceit: at least with a physical camcorder, characters can pick it up and carry it from room to room. And while directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (who also directed PA3) do occasionally make Alex walk through the house with her laptop in her hand, the bulk of the movie consists of static shots of the same four or five rooms. There's not a single scene here that's as clever or as innovative in its use of the found footage aesthetic as the oscillating fan camera that Joost and Schulman invented for the previous movie. (Although, I fully expect more than a few viewers to try and replicate a stunt that the directors pull off with an Xbox Kinetic and the night vision setting on a camera. The result is fun the first time, but loses its luster after being repeated over and over again.) For that matter, there's not a single scene here that's as chilling as that sequence either, which brings me to my next point...

3. It's Not Scary
The PA films have all followed the same general M.O., starting off with small, subtle signs of a haunting and building to the really creepy stuff. So I patiently sat through the self-closing doors and loud thumps in the hallway waiting to see what bigger shocks the directors had in store. And when the credits rolled, I was still waiting. In the past, I've enjoyed how the franchise has toyed with the viewer's expectations, teasing its scares rather than shoving them in our faces. This is the first time, though, where I felt genuinely annoyed by the filmmakers' coyness. It would be one thing if they at least successfully created an atmosphere of tension, but the mood of PA4 is wholly bland and antiseptic, to the point where the stuff that used to guarantee a few gasps (like those self-closing doors) just inspire yawns. And when the demon finally does ratchet up its activity, its dark heart just doesn't seem to be in it; there's no suspense or surprise to any of the bigger set-pieces. It's particularly disappointing to watch Joost and Schulman essentially repeat their killer climax from PA3 to considerably lesser effect at the end of PA4. Might be time for some fresh blood behind the camera.

4. It Could Be a Franchise Killer
Look, I have no doubt that PA4's opening weekend grosses will be big enough to convince Paramount to greenlight a fifth movie. In fact, the brand name remains so powerful (and the movies themselves are so cheap to produce) that they can probably eke out an additional two or three more. But this is exactly the kind of uninspired, entirely generic sequel that can sour an audience's goodwill towards a franchise and make them less eager for the next one. Instead of deepening the mythology or coming up with some fresh new wrinkle for the overall story, the filmmakers spend the 80-odd minutes of PA4 more or less stalling for time, killing the momentum provided by the previous movie, which remains the best installment to date. Horror movie addicts will probably still turn up next October for PA5 -- it's not like they'll have many other options -- but whether they'll actually be excited to see it will be something else altogether.

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