When it comes to horror movies in Hollywood they pretty much follow the
same formula. I’m not talking about the method of instilling fear in you, but
the way they always manage to run a franchise into the ground. It seems so many
horror franchises start out as the next chosen one in the genre, but once they
put a number 4 or 5 at the end of the film’s title it seems the soul of the
original dies as gruesome a death as a Jason or Freddy victim. The question is
can you blame them? In the world of box
office grosses, horror movies are so cheap to make, that most times it’s a sure
thing to make money and in some cases lots of it. The perfect example of this can be seen in
last year’s “The Conjuring” which was made for 20 million dollars went on to
make over 300 million at the box office.
So what else do you expect?
Well if
you are the Paramount Studios, you release another “Paranormal Activity” and
watch it print money. The previous “Paranormal”
films were all connected with a pair of sisters who went through some horrific
nights, both as children and adults. This film does not involve that family,
but instead switches to a teenager named Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), who just
graduated from High School. Jesse lives in an apartment complex with his father
and grandmother. He’s just a normal guy who hangs out with his friends Hector
(Jorge Diaz) and Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh) as they spend the days not doing
much. When they stumble upon the death of Jesse’s downstairs neighbor, this is
where things are supposed to get really scary.
While trying to unlock this mystery, Jesse discovers a weird mark on his
arm, and he starts to change. What happens next? Who cares?
Part of
me wants to tell you the whole story, only because I don’t want you to waste
your money. This is not a very good film at all. I know most of the “Paranormal”
films were not very good, but at least they did found inventive ways to scare you
or at least creep you out in some way. In
“The Marked Ones”, the only fear induced is realizing you wasted an hour and a
half of your time. In 2007 when Oren Peli made “Paranormal Activity” for
something like twenty dollars, and it was original. The film brought something
new to the horror film genre and started a new way to make movies. That new way
was cheap and efficient found footage horror movies. Well seven years and so
many movies later, it is not so fresh anymore, in fact it is just plan tired. I think the studios need to take a break, or
find a way to do something different with it, but I know they won’t. As the old
saying goes “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. “Paranormal Activity: The Marked
Ones” will make a huge profit, and the series will keep going and going, at
least until there is no more money to be made. Just like a professorial athlete
who hung on for too long and becomes a shell of their once great self, this
series is past its prime. In the world of found footage horror movies, this one
is better left lost. Until the next one
that is.
No comments:
Post a Comment