Paranormal Activity 4
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Henry Joost Ariel Schulman
Produced by	Oren Peli Jason Blum Steven Schneider
Screenplay by	Christopher Landon
Story by	Chad Feehan
Starring	Kathryn Newton Matt Shively Aiden Lovekamp Brady Allen Stephen Dunham Alexondra Lee Katie Featherston
Studio	Room 101
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	October 19, 2012 (2012-10-19)
Running time	1 hour 39 mins[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million[2]
Box office	$140,706,358[2]

Paranormal Activity 4 is a 2012 American supernatural horror film, directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, directors of Paranormal Activity 3, and written by Christopher Landon from a story by Chad Feehan. The film features Katie Featherston, who starred in the first film, and had cameos in the other two. The film was released in theaters and IMAX on October 17, 2012 in the United Kingdom and was released on October 18, 2012 in the United States, by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the Paranormal Activity series, and a sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, set several years later. Paranormal Activity 5 will be released in October 2013.

Plot [edit]

On October 9, 2006, Kristi Rey and her husband Daniel are killed by her demon-possessed sister Katie (Katie Featherston). She then abducts Kristi's newborn son, Hunter, unaware that Daniel's teenage daughter, Ali, is still alive and away on a school trip. A text states that Katie and Hunter's whereabouts remained unknown.

In November 2011, a teenager named Alex (Kathryn Newton) and her family live in suburban Henderson, Nevada with her mother Holly (Alexondra Lee), her father Doug (Stephen Dunham), and her little brother Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp). Alex and her friend Ben. (Matt Shively), who is going to Mexico, discover their neighbor's child, Robbie (Brady Allen), hiding in their family treehouse. The next day, Robbie's mother falls ill and is taken to the hospital, leaving Robbie in the care of Alex's family. Robbie begins mentioning an invisible friend, whose presence is captured by a series of laptop cameras set up by Alex and Ben. On an Xbox Kinect, pixel dots show an invisible figure stand up and walk. One night, Alex notices several cars outside Robbie's house, but flees after being confronted by a woman. During the day, Robbie draws a green symbol on Wyatt's back, which Alex later determines to be associated with witchcraft and demonic possession.

The following day, Robbie takes Wyatt to his house. Alex follows them and finds Robbie's mother, who is actually Katie. The next night, Doug experiences some paranormal activity himself when one of Holly's missing knives tries to fall on him. Meanwhile, Wyatt talks to an invisible being, seemingly pleading that his name is not Hunter. The next day, Wyatt confides in Alex that Katie told him he was adopted, like Robbie, and that his birth family needs him. Wyatt is taking a bath when he is violently pulled underwater by an unseen force, remaining underwater for a long time, before emerging, now referring to himself as Hunter. He goes into Alex's room and levitates a sleeping Alex into the air. The next morning, as Alex checks the footage on her computer, it seems like she can't get her files open.

The next night, alone in the house with Wyatt, Alex video-chats with Ben about her parents being mad at her for questioning Wyatt's adoption, and hears the garage door open by itself. She goes down to close it but gets locked in. Katie is seen going upstairs to Wyatt's room, where he is hiding in his closet. Katie calls for Hunter, saying, "It's your aunt Katie... you're almost ready Hunter... I'll be here till you're ready." Alex is trapped in the garage, where the family car turns on by itself and begins spewing carbon monoxide exhaust. She escapes by breaking into the car and crashing out through the garage door. When her family gets home, they don't believe her account of what happened. The next morning, Holly is alone in the house, and begins to hear strange noises. Katie enters the house undetected, and goes to Wyatt's room. Holly is picked up and violently thrown against the ceiling by a hissing invisible entity. She crashes to the floor with a loud snap. Katie drags her body away. Ben later arrives to discover no one is home. He leaves Alex a phone message, telling her that he has discovered everything behind these strange occurrences. Ben goes to view the footage on the laptop but Katie appears behind him and snaps his neck.

Alex and her father arrive, and he thinks he sees Alex's mother with Wyatt (or Robbie and Katie) outside. As he goes to explore, Alex goes to her room and discovers Ben's body. She suddenly gets attacked by an invisible entity and gets dragged out of her bedroom. She then breaks free from it, runs to Katie's house and finds her dad being dragged violently by the unseen entity. She looks in the rooms to find that Doug's body isn't there, she goes to see a window with Spanish newspapers stuck to it. She then hears Wyatt calling Alex for help. As she turns around, Katie appears and storms forwards, demonically screaming. Alex quickly climbs out of the window at the rear of the house, where she discovers Wyatt standing still. She pleads with him to run away with her, but he stands there, face blank. As Alex looks up, she sees dozens of demon-faced women, wearing necklaces of what seemed to be the witchcraft symbol, marching towards her. She turns the other way, only to be attacked by a possessed Katie, before the credits appear in silence.

In a post-credits scene, two Spanish-speaking men in Mexico with a camera go into a mysterious store. They think that store sells "witchcraft". They decide to run to the exit but an old and scared-looking Mexican woman appears and states, translated from Spanish, that "This is only the beginning". Frightened by her, the men leave the store and the camera cuts to black.

Cast [edit]

Kathryn Newton who played Alex Nelson

• Kathryn Newton as Alex Nelson
• Matt Shively as Ben
• Brady Allen as Robbie
• Aiden Lovekamp as Wyatt Nelson/ Hunter Rey
• Alexondra Lee as Holly Nelson
• Stephen Dunham as Doug Nelson
• Katie Featherston as Katie

People who play characters from the previous films in archive footage (uncredited) include:

• Sprague Grayden as Kristi Rey
• Brian Boland as Daniel Rey
• Jackson Xenia Prieto and William Juan Prieto as young Hunter Rey

Production [edit]

Paramount Pictures announced on January 2, 2012 that Paranormal Activity 4 was in the works. Information on the characters had been scarce, stating that Brady Allen was set to play a character named Robbie. Katie Featherston reprised her role as Katie, who was still possessed from the ending of the first two films. Other cast and characters that appeared in the film had been kept extremely tightly under wraps in order for fans to not know the plot. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman returned to direct the film.^[3][4][5]

On June 23, 2012, it was confirmed that the fourth film had begun filming.^[6] A trailer debuted on August 3 in front of Total Recall. The first theatrical trailer was released for the film on August 1, 2012. The trailer showed that the film is a sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, following the story of possessed Katie Hunter after their disappearance at the end of the second film. The movie also featured a new scare technique, of footage being shown from a laptop in a video chat, that the directors felt would rival the 'fan cam' from the previous movie and that because of it being familiar technology it was "built for a horror movie".^[7] The movie also featured the Kinect, a Macbook, smart phones and a Canon XA10.^[8]

Release [edit]

Box office [edit]

As of December 23, 2012, the film has grossed $53,851,000 in North America and $86,855,358 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $140,706,358.

Paranormal Activity 4 did not perform as well as Paranormal Activity 2 or Paranormal Activity 3 as it debuted with $4.8 million in midnight showings. That made it the third highest in midnight grosses for a horror film behind only its predecessors, Paranormal Activity 3 ($8 million) and Paranormal Activity 2 ($6.3 million).^[9] It then grossed $15 million in its opening day, also lower than the third film ($26.2 million) and second film ($20.1 million), bringing its total to $29 million in its opening weekend.^[2]

A movie theatre chain in the United Kingdom, Cineworld, showed screenings of the film, Paranormal Activity 4 rather than the DreamWorks cartoon film, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, leaving children traumatized.^[10][11] A similar event happened in the US in 2007, with screenings of The Hills Have Eyes 2 instead of The Last Mimzy, and in 2010 with screenings of Saw 3D instead of Megamind.^[12]

Home media [edit]

The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on January 29, 2013.

The post-credits scene teases Paranormal Activity: The Oxnard Tapes, which is an upcoming Latino spin-off of the Paranormal Activity series.^[13] The post-credits scene was taken out of the film when the DVD was released.

Critical reception [edit]

The film has received mixed reviews from film critics and is generally regarded as the most disappointing entry in the series. At Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 26% based upon 94 reviews with an average rating of 4.3/10, indicating negative reviews.^[14] The website's consensus stated that "While it does manage to wring a few more screams out of the franchise's surprisingly durable premise, Paranormal Activity 4 provides fans of the series with dismayingly diminishing returns." At Metacritic the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[15] Drew McWeeny gave the film a C+, saying that while he felt that the film "played it safe", he still found the film to be shameful. Shaun Munro also reacted negatively, saying that he felt that the film would only be enjoyed by the "die-hard" fans of the previous films in the franchise. Ryan Lambie reacted negatively, giving the film a rating of 2/5, and saying that the film did not introduce any new ideas. Scott Weinberg gave a positive review, saying that there was "some fun" to be had in the film, however also felt that the film would likely only be enjoyed by fans of the previous films. Fred Topel also gave a positive review, saying that the film included iconography from some classic horror films.^[16][17]

Accolades [edit]

Sequel [edit]

On October 21, 2012, Paramount announced that Paranormal Activity 5 would be released on October 25, 2013. Katie Featherson is set to reprise her role as Katie and Oren Peli has been announced as producer and writer. ^[19]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Paranormal Activity 4 at the Internet Movie Database
• Paranormal Activity 4 at Box Office Mojo
• Paranormal Activity 4 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Paranormal Activity 4 at Metacritic