User reviews

"I've heard of spirit photography before, I've just never seen it in person." When looking through boxes at their house Ryan finds an old video camera. Excited about the find he begins to walk around filming everything. He begins to notice strange things through the lens and when he looks at tapes of movies filmed with the camera he makes a horrifying discovery. This is a series that has been on the decline ever since the first one. Each one tries to do something different than the others, and this one actually shows the activity rather then showing things happening without knowing why. This new idea makes things not as creepy to me. Seeing a chair start to rock without seeing something do it is scarier then seeing a ghost move around. This movie, however, much like every other sequel, is almost review proof. This is the 5th movie in the series and by now you are looking forward to the new one or not. As for me this is a series that should probably stop. If you can't improve on the last one don't make it. They haven't reached Batman & Robin status with the franchise yet but they are on their way. Overall, not un- watchable but another drop off from the previous one. I give this a C+.

I think I read somewhere on the movie poster that this one is different and that it shows the story from the other side... Well, if it did, then it is not anything special.

I watched all the paranormal activity movies and even a parody. I watched them all not because I really liked them or enjoyed much but because I like horror films and those are rare nowdays - I mean the good ones. so, I was hoping with each one of these that one might be good, but... I mean, they are not bad entirely, but not something special either. I was surprised when the 1st one was voted somewhere as the scariest horror of all time!!!??? Say what?!

This one starts promising, but that is all that is interesting. The little girl is good. Mum is just ... whatever. Dad - well, at least he is kinda sexy so he passes as well as that blond girl ( which, by the way, I did not get why she is even in the house?! - a babysitter?!)

So, Toby is evil, he is in the house for 6 days and the family goes around filming... Yeah,right. That is what bothers me in all of these films. I mean, I know it IS a movie. But if you use hand camera to make a movie look more realistic, please let people do realistic things too. But no ...

All in all, if you don't have anything better to do - go ahead. A few thrills and it is over. 5 from me.

I approached this movie with low expectations due to the negative reviews and the slipshod quality of Paranormal Activity 4. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised to discover that this movie did not suffer from the plodding pace of the first movie or the frustratingly unintelligent characters that were featured in PA2 and PA4 (recall that the father in the second movie had cameras installed but then refused to watch the recorded footage). This entry moves along at a brisk pace and is never boring, and you never have to wait too long for some creepy visuals or a good jump scare (yes, there are jump scares and this will turn some viewers off, but it didn't bother me as I was in the mood to be startled). The character of Mike is somewhat annoying but he's there to serve as comic relief.

Many of the visual effects are subtle and done quite well, such as the particles and shapes captured by the modified "ghost camera," but the use of CGI becomes much too heavy-handed in the latter half of the film. Whereas most of the scares are done very well, a few of the CGI effects seen near the end of the movie are more funny than scary and this is not a good thing; sparser use of computer- generated visuals would have been a wise move, but instead they were VERY liberal with its application here (especially in comparison with the previous entries). Also, without spoiling anything, there are some frustrating problems raised by the plot twists that occur near the end of the film and PA5 ultimately creates more questions than it answers.

Fans who were hoping for a neat and tidy wrap-up to the franchise will be somewhat disappointed with PA5. However, if you accept that these films have had convoluted plots from PA2 onward and you're just in the mood to be scared and entertained, you'll probably enjoy this one. It's a solid popcorn movie for a rainy night.

Just don't puzzle over the continuity of the plot too much... You'll give yourself a migraine.

Remember Saw? Remember what happened to that franchise? After becoming a Halloween staple, it was immediately overshadowed by the newer, fresher Paranormal Activity series, with the last Saw using 3D as a final resort to churn out one more film from the dying franchise. Now, we're seeing the same thing from Paranormal Activity. In fact, the desperation to milk one last film is apparent, and it's sad. Alas, this is the cycle every horror franchise goes through. I have to admit, I personally enjoyed this series longer than I would expect. To call PA4 disappointing is an understatement, but The Marked Ones made up for it and surprised the hell out of me.

However, TGD is easily the worst film in the series, one of the worst films of the year, and a sad, cynical, soulless attempt to salvage whatever is left from this franchise. There's literally nothing memorable here, nothing iconic. It's all so generic and inept, from the constant jump scares, to the forgettable actors, to the 3D, which is used in the most clichéd way possible. The story doesn't make a lick of sense compared to all the buildup in the previous films, most likely due to the noticeable absence of Christopher Landon, who wrote all the sequels up until this point. And why the hell did it take two years for four writers to write the script? Was that really necessary? Overall, there's not much to be said about TGD because there's not much to actually talk about. By the time of writing this review, I've already forgotten about 90% of the movie, and you will too. So don't watch it. You don't need to see the activity. Whatever you come up with in your imagination is probably far scarier than this movie would ever dream to achieve.

I've always had a lot of respect for the "Paranormal Activity" movies, if not a whole lot of love. "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension" (R, 1:28) is the sixth installment in the series, which has scared up about $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide, against less than $25 million in production expenses. The original "Paranormal Activity" (2009) was filmed in the house owned by Oren Peli, who was the film's producer, director, writer, cinematographer and editor. Peli made that film for $15,000 and it ended up earning nearly $200 million worldwide – almost 13 THOUSAND times what it cost. This, of course, was the film that started that billion dollar franchise and, co-produced by Jason Blum, helped establish Blumhouse Productions, which eventually brought horror fans the "Insidious", "Sinister" and "The Purge" films, as well as the Best Picture Oscar Nominee "Whiplash" in 2014. Now THAT'S a success story that anyone who has ever tried to make a buck on their own idea or vision has to respect… but what Movie Fans really want to know about a movie is whether it's any good. That's what matters to us.

Personally, I liked all of the "Paranormal Activity" movies… but I didn't LOVE them. As they were bringing us creative stories, helping to turn the found-footage subgenre from a novelty into a viable filmmaking option, redefining horror movies for the 21st century and giving audiences thrills, chills and our fills… of plot twists, there was a downside to the fun. For one thing, the "Paranormal" movies did what the "Fast & Furious" series did – give us films out of the sequence of the overall narratives of its characters – but even tougher to keep straight. The other problem with the "Paranormal" films has always been a lack of action. Although they've put some scary and interesting moments on the screen, in most of the movies, not a whole lot happens – especially in the first one which seems overly dependent on the single big payoff at the very end of the film. The advertising for "The Ghost Dimension" promises a franchise-capping story that will answer all of the fans' questions and take us where no "Paranormal Activity" has taken us before. The question is whether the sixth installment gives the series the ending fans deserve.

"Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension" takes place in 2013, after the events of "Paranormal Activity 2" and reflective of the events in "Paranormal Activity 3", from a present-day perspective. Young married couple Ryan and Emily Fleege (Chris J. Murray and Brit Shaw) move into a house built on the land where the home of Katie and Micah stood in the first film. Ryan and Emily have a little girl named Leila (Ivy George), whom they call Lee, and Emily's sister Skyler (Olivia Taylor Dudley) lives there too. When Ryan's brother, Mike (Dan Gill), newly separated from his wife, comes to stay for a couple weeks, there are then enough unsuspecting people in the house for the ghosts to begin tormenting.

While setting up Ryan's Christmas decorations, Ryan and Mike come across a mysterious box that Ryan says isn't his. Inside there is a series of VHS video tapes and an old, but uniquely upgraded video camera. The tapes show the young Kristi and Katie, circa 1988, being introduced to Toby (as in the third film) and being taught to make the most of their psychic abilities. That camera has the ability to see and record spectral phenomena. As Ryan and Mike try to figure out what's really happening on those tapes and record increasingly prominent ghost-like apparitions, Lee is observed talking to an invisible "friend" and behaving very oddly. At first, the Fleeges try to solve the mystery and protect the little girl themselves. They eventually call in a priest (Michael Krawic), but it starts to look like it might all be too little, too late.

"Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension" is a very disappointing ending to the groundbreaking series. The film suffers from the same malady as all the others – not enough action and not enough dread until the very end. The special effects are good, with paranormal wisps of black smoke looking a lot like those in "Crimson Peak", and the 3-D gives a very nice depth to the shots of that wide-open house and those spectral images and it serves the few brief action scenes pretty well. Unfortunately, contrary to what the movie's advertising would lead us to believe, our peek into the Ghost Dimension is frustratingly fleeting, with even the "Poltergeist" remake doing a better job of showing us "the other side". This movie has a half-way decent climactic scene, but the story's ultimate resolution and the final image on the screen elicited dissatisfied groans from my fellow theater patrons. Although I settled for the more subtle eye roll myself, I felt their pain. Basically, this movie gives us the standard "Paranormal Activity" formula, but without a worthwhile payoff. Much like the ghosts that the films portray, the 2015 installment shows that the "Paranormal Activity" movies have outlived their usefulness and should just fade away. "C-"

So, I saw an advanced preview of this film so there wasn't many ratings up. After the preview I looked and it was rating around an average of 5 out of 10.....did I miss something? I loved this movie, not enough to give it a 10, but enough.

I think the main thing to focus on this film is the 3D, if you see it in 2D you have made a terrible terrible mistake. The 3D is amazing!! It actually legitimately makes you jump as the objects hurtle towards you, I flinched. Then the 3D element isn't just carried out with tricks like that, but actually all throughout the movie, as you see specks of the demons black liquid stuff (best way I can describe that) floating around, and it looks like you can reach out and touch it and the camera they use to see the demon (you'll see if you watch the movie) looks good in 3D.

Sure, the actual storyline wasn't the absolute best, and the CGI was slightly less convincing....cause let's face it, when is CGI ever really truly convincing. But the acting was good, a believable family and an amazingly creepy little girl, and it was a genuinely thought out plot, easy to follow, carried on from the other films (so tied up loose ends), a little bit scary, a little bit nail biting. Overall a good horror movie.

Go see it, but....see it in 3D, or you will miss out on the intended experience!

The weak performances, over-reliance on CGI, and lack of tension all make Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension an unsatisfying and unenjoyable movie experience. The poor screenwriting is evident throughout the movie, with examples such as the lazy narrative convenience of having a character "follow them out of the house". Its failure to deliver any real scares or tension makes it an ultimately disappointing experience. There are virtually no scary moments and the tension is non-existent, making it hard to stay engaged throughout the runtime. It's a shame, as the premise of the film had a lot of potential. Sadly, it just doesn't deliver.

"So, let's say Joost and Schulman make the decision to direct the inevitable Paranormal Activity 5 and Paranormal Activity 6. What they should focus on, instead of repetitive, dead-end jump scares, is giving the audience some insight as to what is haunting Katie and her family and how it came to be."

Above is a direct quote from my review of Paranormal Activity 4, which began my streak of lamenting every new Paranormal Activity installment for neglecting the elephant in the room - what was haunting the family and the characters in this series and why? I became frustrated that, with each new installment, the focus was on some sort of technological gimmick or the increased quantity of jump-scares which, in turn, diminished the quality of them, and that there seemed to be no interest in wrapping up the loose-ends and plot-strands that Oren Peli, Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and numerous other writers/directors of the series had created.

With Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, which is billed to be the franchise's conclusion, I can finally rest easy knowing with most of my questions answered rather than panning a slew of open-ended circumstances. Director Gregory Plotkin and a quartet of screenwriters - Jason Harry Pagan, Andrew Deutschmann, Adam Robitel, and Gavin Heffernan - do their best to give audiences new characters with this final installment and provide a coherent timeline of events for the life of Katie, who we saw haunted in the first three films, in addition to other minor characters liker her sister and even "Paranormal Activity 2"'s baby Hunter.

The Ghost Dimension focuses on the young couple of Ryan (Chris J. Murray) and Emily (Brit Shaw), who live in a lavish home with their young daughter Leila (Ivy George). Also living with them temporarily is Ryan's brother Mike (Dan Gill) and Emily's friend Skyler (Olivia Taylor Dudley) while they get their own lives together. Shortly after being acquainted with the home, Ryan finds a large box of tapes and a highly customized, one-of-a-kind video-camera and begins seeing strange apparitions when using it throughout the house. Extensive research into the tapes, which belonged to the mother and father of young Katie and Kristi, shows questionable occurrences and what looks to be demonic activity throughout the home. Overtime, Ryan and Mike notice Leila's increasingly strange behavior, from simple anti-social attitudes to believing her imaginary friend Toby, a memorable name for any fan or follower of this franchise, is real.

Every Paranormal Activity convention is on display here: jump-scares, long, somewhat listless documents of the night through the use of many camera setups, smart-ass characters, strange behavior amongst children, the knowledgeable priest showing up in the nick of time. By now, you should know how you feel about these conventions (I always keep an open mind, though after the second film, I've found them to be as grating as most people). About thirty minutes into this installment, I was mentally preparing a more negative review, saying that this series was going to end on a shrug and a head-shake, until the narrative became more concerned with piecing together the childhoods of Katie and Kristi, even tying in the brainless ending of Paranormal Activity 3.

This is where The Ghost Dimension becomes a fiercely watchable film, and upon piecing together the old, it formulates new inclusions by giving us some seriously strong jump-scares in this film. The 3D doesn't add a lot to the experience, but it furthers the surprising notion that home-video footage looks quite good when it's digitally rendered. With all that, this film goes from the same old conventions done in a mediocre manner to making an earnest attempt at concluding the franchise in a way that makes sense and answers most of our burning questions.

The problem, however, is at this point, I don't think people really care. The saturation of these films and the massive amounts of parodies have made this franchise the laughingstock of the horror world, and the significantly decreased theater counts - due to Cinemark and Regal Cinemas refusing to show the film because of Paramount's plan to digitally distribute the film once it falls below three-hundred theaters (the same will be done with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse next weekend) - people have moved on, much like they did with the Saw series, which also found itself concluding pretty abruptly. The Ghost Dimension is arguably the best conclusion to this wheezy franchise we could've asked for, and I found myself being in a state I haven't been in with these films since 2010 - satisfied and content.

Starring: Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill, and Olivia Taylor Dudley. Directed by: Gregory Plotkin.

I don't know what's worse: trawling through reviews by self- appointed internet 'reviewers' using a free resource or sitting in the theatre with bored cinema-goers next to you who paid to see a basic 'scary' film and manage to shuffle, walk in and out or - amazingly - talk on their smartphones during the film. And there's a connection here.

The people who made this film were patently under pressure by unseen forces (another irony!)... to get in a lot of cheap shocks for the typical 'Saturday night' crowd who wouldn't really appreciate lots of quiet scenes of an empty house interior.

So there's masses of what could have been a great, eerie film compromised by loud noises/jolts and CGI probably outsourced on the cheap (judging by the credits).

Meaning that there's a good film here partially buried which picks up on PA3 in no small way and which has some really chilling connotations. No giving which ones away. It's down to the real fans to decide and mull over.

But then that would fall into the category of 'being respectful of the art' and that's certainly something that has NO interest for the cheap keyboard experts abounding. The same breed who I would argue have compromised the film.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A couple, their friend and one of their brothers are staying in a large house when they discover a video camera. They start to experiment with this camera and soon realize that it's picking up ghostly images that they can't see without. Soon the young daughter is being visited by someone named Tobi and the adults begin seeing frightening images.

I guess I should give a breakdown on my option of the series leading up to this sixth entry, which the producers are saying is the very last one. I found the first film to be truly frightening and I rank it as one of the best horror movies from the past thirty years. The second film was a complete bore while the third one had an interesting and good story but no scares. The fourth and fifth films in the series proved that they had gone to the well one too many times and it was time to put a nail in the coffin. I walked into this sixth film with low expectations and the film started off having me fearing for another bad entry but then it turned out to be much better.

Is this a great film or a good one? Absolutely not but I thought there were some interesting developments with the plot and there were some really effective scenes that make this worth sitting through. Whereas the first film had the majority of its scare scenes work, this one here isn't nearly as lucky because I'd say only fifteen or twenty percent of the scares work but when they do work they're pretty powerful. The budget here was a lot higher, which allowed for some CGI scenes and I thought these effects were the worst of what we get here. There are moments where the camera is slowly moving around and you're expecting something to happen. The director does a very nice job at the build up and pay off.

The most effective scenes have things running or jumping towards the camera. There are some logical issues and there are moments that don't really connect to the events they're trying to tie to in the series but I liked some of the new stuff here. There's a twist involving the two men watching a tape of Katie and Kristi as a kid that works well. There's also a few other nice elements that help this film seem more than just a rehash of the first movie.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION might be the last and at least they go out with something better than the previous two films.

When you look back on old horror series like 'Friday the 13th' or 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and you see 'Part 8: Jason Takes Manhatten' or 'Part 5: The Dream Child' you can't help but shudder at just how ridiculous the sound of that sequel is. Sadly I fear when people look back on the 'Paranormal Activity' series 'The Ghost Dimension' is going to sound equally ridiculous and appear the same for anyone who bothers to watch it. The film isn't good and does a real disservice to an otherwise great series. A huge disappointment.

The filmmakers on this one seemed to have absolutely no understanding of what made the first four (or five including 'The Marked Ones') so effective. It was the fact that even for those of us that don't for the faintest second believe in ghosts or demons, it's still scary because everything was so simple. A person standing over their partner at night simply staring at them for hours on end is much more frightening of an image than actually seeing a completely unrealistic monster-like creature jump out of nowhere. This film did not belong in the series and if it is indeed the last 'Paranormal Activity' film to be made, it was a sad way to end things.

The Paranormal Activity franchise has definitely been one to follow. The story follows a demon, under the guise of 'Toby' who has been steadily haunting a family and racking up quite a body count. This entry, which promises to be the final one, seems a little distant from the rest of the series. The family move into a house where they find a video camera able to pick up spirit activity and a collection of VHS tapes documenting Katie and Kristi after the events of PA3. The spirit camera is the USP of the film, as they delve into 3D filming ectoplasm and eventually showing 'Toby' as he starts haunting the families daughter. As you can expect, they do start to milk the 3D element too much towards the end of the film, especially in the climax, and quite a lot of the 'activity' scenes seem to play to the audience more than the characters. However, being able to see the demons movements definitely add to the building of tension, and is a much stronger installment than PA4 and 'the marked ones'. The main problem lies within the need for another, final installment, to finally tie up all the loose ends.

...To try to drum up cheap thrills for a mediocre film.

Near the end of the movie when Skyler finds stuff that the husband has been researching, she "quotes" Revelation 5:6. However, her "quote" (Of course being created by the writers of this movie) completely trashes the ACTUAL SCRIPTURE out of context-in so far as to pick out the first phrase of scripture and then ADD IN a bunch of creative crap that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REST OF THE ACTUAL SCRIPTURE! Obviously this is just a cheap means of trying to make up a cheap "scare". Pathetic.

If you want to try to scare the audience, at just be authentic and DO NOT take Scripture and try to mold it into whatever you think you need to add fear, etc., into your feeble attempt at making a "scary" movie. If a writer DARES use Scripture in any movie in any way, he/she had better make sure they respect and honor it "as is"-rather than tweaking it and/or adding anything to it that doesn't exist just to try to win cheap points in their movie-making attempts at selling a story.

Really. What do people want? The story is loyal to the main story and it's following its path. And it's quite interesting in my opinion. I'm wanting to know what will happen after this one. I hope they make a new one. This movie is more of the same. Means it's good. You can trust me. If you haven't watched it don't give attention to those bad reviews. This is a good movie. What it didn't explain everything? It's not supposed to. We want more sequences. Still it explains a lot. People are not really patient. Reviews are so bad that I went to Netflix to watch it before I could buy it. Now I don't have a doubt. I'll get it to my collection. And I hope they keep up the good work.

For a franchise that originally started out with promise and intrigue way back in 2007, it's sad to see the Paranormal Activity franchise peter out with such a lacklustre finale with Ghost Dimension in what is the series 6th and supposedly final adventure after dwindling box office receipts and audience reactions.

Oren Peli's original low budget effort that kick started horror's newest box office sensation was a slow burning and effective found footage tale of a malevolent spirit that would become known as Toby and the then budding filmmakers utilised what was at their disposal to create genuine chills (getting pulled out of bed by the feet remains a frightening delight) and they actually bothered with creating characters that we got to know and even though not necessarily care about, we still were able to invest in their fight against the darkness.

Subsequent follow ups like Paranormal Activity 2 and 3 were passable attempts at recreating the achievements of the first film but from the 4th entry onwards the series struggled to be anything more than a sad cash grab at jumping on past glories and while Ghost Dimension try's to tantalize viewers with a chance to finally get up close and personal with Toby, it can't generate any form of memorability and by the passing of the film's 80 minutes or so of runtime your left under no illusions that this series has officially passed its used by date.

Cheap scare tactics are employed, priests are brought in to offer advice and assistance, people act strangely to events that any normal people would lose their minds over and the story gets sillier by the minute with shlock like use of "other dimensions" and ghost seeing cameras and the simple and more believable tactics employed in the franchise's opening chapters have been trounced by lack of originality and effort.

With a few frightening moments and a so bad its hilarious finale, Ghost Dimension has tiny fragments of moments that work but overall this is a dire, sad and unspectacular conclusion for fans of the Paranormal Activity name and even the most die-hard followers of the series will have a hard time caring about creepy ginger child Leila and her weirdly unsurprised parents adventures with dear old soul Toby.

1 franchise killing entry out of 5