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Review #387: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #15 - Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the fifth entry in the Paranormal Activity series, but at first glance appears to be a spin-off rather than a direct follow-up to the others (though as the movie goes on, the connections become quite frequent and direct). It follows a group of Mexican-American teenagers- Jesse, Hector, and Marisol- who start spying on a woman in their apartment complex after hearing she might be some kind of witch. After this woman gets murdered by another teen in the community, they sneak into her home and find a collection of occult materials- and Jesse starts exhibiting strange powers and violent tendencies. Will the three of them be able to find the cause of these strange happenings before Jesse is overtaken by this strange occultic force? I remember watching the first half of this movie back when it came out, but lost interest and never finished it until just now. Having had such a...
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Review #386: Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #14 - Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) (I should say, I have just now realized I watched the Unrated version of this movie, which apparently adds ten whole minutes  to its runtime. I am unclear on what exactly was added, so apologies for not differentiating.) This is the last of the Paranormal Activity films I remember watching (in full, at least), having seen it back when it came out in 2012. I remembered very little about it compared to the others (and in fact some of the details I thought I remembered, ended up being wrong) so this one was largely new to me. And, not to spoil the review, but: I actually really liked this one! Still had some issues (a lot of the same issues, really) but I'll go over that in a bit. Paranormal Activity 4 is the first actual sequel to the first film, taking place four years after the events of Paranormal Activity 1. This entry follows a seemingly unrelated family (hereafter referred to as Dad, Mom, the young brother Wyatt, ol...
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Review #385: Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #13 - Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) We're back with another Paranormal Activity movie, once again acting as a prequel to both of the previous films. (Don't worry, the next entry- Paranormal Activity 4- is the first actual sequel. Aren't you excited?) This was probably the entry I remembered the most from seeing it back when it released, though that may not be saying much. Paranormal Activity 3 starts off with a framing device of Katie and Kristi, prior to the events of the previous film, finding some old family home videos, and... I guess this is supposed to be what they see (but that doesn't really make any sense if you think about it; more on that later). In this home video from 1988, we see the two of them as children, as well as their parents, Dennis and Julie (the IMDB plot summary says Dennis is not their father, rather he is Julie's live-in boyfriend, but if that was ever said in the movie I didn't catch it, and regardless, it...
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Review #384: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #12 - Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Paranormal Activity 2 (or, as I think it should have been called, Paranormal Ac2vity) is primarily a prequel to the first film, taking place about two months before that movie's events. It follows Katie's sister, Kristi, as well as Kristi's husband Daniel, stepdaughter Ali, and infant son Hunter. Following an apparent break-in, Kristi and Daniel kit out their house with a ton of stationary surveillance cameras in an attempt to keep themselves safe, but as time goes on, the cameras pick up activity of the... paranormal... variety, as we learn a bit more of the origins of the malevolent force introduced in the first film. First, let me get the good out of the way: I appreciated how this movie looks and sounds way better than the previous one (three years and an extra few millions dollars' worth of budget will do that), and I really liked how the plot of this movie ends up tying directly into the plot of the pr...
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Review #383: Paranormal Activity (2007)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #11 - Paranormal Activity (2007) While every official listing says Paranormal Activity released in 2007, this is a bit misleading- it was filmed in 2006 and made the film festival circuit the following year, but didn't get a theatrical release until 2009. I remember really liking it when it came out- it was one of the most genuinely terrifying movies I had seen in a long time- but I am sad to say I don't think it has quite held up as much as I expected. Paranormal Activity is a found footage movie that follows Katie and Micah, an inexplicably wealthy couple living in an inexplicably huge and empty house, who have started recording their day-to-day lives on video because of a recent series of seemingly supernatural occurrences. Katie has been living with these occurrences (mostly strange noises and minor unexplained phenomena) since she was a child, when she and her sister used to see a dark force or entity at the foot of their beds at night. Katie an...
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Review #382: Saw X (2023)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #10 - Saw X (2023) Saw X takes place between the first and second films in the series, and follows John Kramer after he's been given a prognosis of only a few months to live. John hears about an experimental procedure being offered outside the country, and travels to Mexico to spend a fortune in the hopes of extending his life. The procedure seemingly goes well, but John falls down a rabbit hole that reveals the procedure was not what he expected- and the consequences will be dire. Someone will have to pay, and the Jigsaw Killer is going to make them pay. (It was actually quite difficult writing an evocative summary that doesn't spoil the main thrust of the film, because I think it's actually quite an interesting reveal when it happens.) I saw this movie back when it came out, and thought it was pretty good. I've heard people throw around things like "best Saw movie and it's not even close" and I wouldn't go that far, but th...
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Review #381: Spiral (2021)

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October 2026 Horror Reviews #9 - Spiral (2021) Spiral (originally titled "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" whatever that's supposed to mean) is the ninth entry in the Saw series, and seems to have been written as an explicit spin-off rather than a numbered entry (but the next movie is called Saw X so I guess that went out the window). Featuring none of the characters from any previous Saw film (only name-dropping John Kramer a couple times and one scene where a few photos of past characters are seen), this one follows Chris Rock as Detective Zeke Banks, a loose cannon cop who has drawn a big target on his back after he ratted out a corrupt partner a few years ago. When several cops from the precinct start turning up dead (or, at least, their body parts start being delivered to the station with Zeke's attention), the clues seem to point to a Jigsaw copycat. Will Zeke be able to track down and stop the culprit, or will he find out that the killer is closer than he could ha...
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