As a huge fan, I'm sad to say this franchise is done.

Back in 2009, I was blown away by a little movie called Paranormal Activity. The hype was huge, and I lined up with plenty of other fans for a midnight showing in Atlanta. It hadn't yet expanded nationwide and this was the only nearby place to see it. Luckily, I was not disappointed. The movie scared me like few others had. It didn't rely on constant jump scares. Katie being dragged out of the bed was the scariest movie moment I had ever witnessed. I was literally frozen with fear for a few seconds afterwards.

A year later, Paranormal Activity 2 was being released. The trailers looked good, although I was wary that the sequel would suck. The movie started, and ten minutes in I found myself confused. Here was Katie, visiting her sister and acting as if everything was normal. Then, it finally clicked. We had all been tricked. This wasn't a sequel, it was a prequel. It was genius to hide that in the marketing. Then I began to wonder how it would tie into the original and why the events in this movie were never mentioned. But they explained it all and I concluded that Paranormal Activity 2 was just as good, if not better, than the first one and was a damn near perfect sequel.

They understood what worked in the original. They came up with a brilliant way to justify why these hauntings were being filmed again. A new baby naturally means the video camera is coming out. The security cameras were genius. I totally bought that this family, particularly the father, would have them installed after the break-in. And the fact that they were always running explained why they always got everything on video.

Of course everyone remembers the two big jump scares in Part 2. The cabinets and Kristi being dragged down the stairs. They were absolutely horrifying and shocking. The cabinets actually made Part 3 scarier, because they destroyed any sense of safety we might have felt during the daytime. From then on, anything could happen at anytime. But there were incredibly intense and suspenseful sequences too. The scene where Ali goes downstairs in the middle of the night and encounters Hunter's toy moving on it's own was almost too much to watch. The night-vision climax was equally horrifying.

Part 3 was a good sequel overall, but it was a slight step downwards from the first 2. For one, it felt like what it was: a scary movie, rather than terrifying home video footage. Not only was the footage way too good to be VHS, but all the activity was caught on video perfectly. As suspenseful as the fan-cam was, it was just too perfectly timed. I felt like I was watching actors pretend to be in the 80s, whereas the first 2 movies felt like real people in real houses. That being said, Part 3 was almost as scary as the first 2. Katie being snatched up by her hair froze me with fear like when she was dragged out of bed years later. But the ending was just awful, giving no resolution and completely crapping all over the continuity set by the first 2 movies.

Part 4 was another step in the wrong direction. While I did appreciate some of the story twists, the movie was simply not scary. I'm not sure what went wrong. I felt no suspense. It was easy to predict when something scary was going to happen. And I barely remember anything that did happen. It was almost all just weird noises and creepy kids standing in dark rooms. In Part 3, an entire kitchen levitated to the ceiling. In Part 4, one knife goes flying up to the ceiling, although it did admittedly make for a neat scene later. But it was repetitive and lame in comparison to what we've seen before. Alex again felt like a movie character, in contrast with Ali from Part 2, who looked and acted like a real teenage girl. Using webcams was a logical way to explain the filming, but they weren't used to their fullest potential. Neither was the Kinect, although it did get one good scare (Katie sitting on the couch but obscured by the dots).

I did like the ending, although story-wise it was pretty awful. Nothing was resolved again, and it pretty much ended exactly how the other 3 movies ended. Everybody dies except Katie. Part 5 will no doubt be out next year, and I sincerely hope they put a lot of thought into it and finish this series. I don't want to see Paranormal Activity 10 and still not be sure what exactly this demon wants.