Hello everyone. Hope everyone's having a fine Friday so far. It's definitely fall weather one hundred percent around here. The grey sky, the constant rain fall, the small chill in the air, and the leaves changing colors. It means it's the perfect time for more spooky movies. Especially as we have Halloween coming up on Sunday. So earlier this year, the Wrong Turn franchise took a branch off it's tree to dive into a new story. It worked really really well for me. Yeah, I had a small issue with it - the way the story was formatted. But it was a bold new territory for the franchise. Next up, we had Spiral: From The Book of Saw. It was a back to basics approach in a lot of ways while pushing the boundaries. And again, it was successful.
This year, we have the reemergence of the Paranormal Activity series. It was one that seemed to be a bit of a hit or miss with fans. Some really like it and are able to find something out of each installment, even if it's something as small as one specific sequence for it. Paranormal Activity is a very interesting series. It was one that helped usher in a new age of found footage films back in 2009 with the original's success. With each new installment, there seemed to be a bigger story that they were working towards. I mean we have The Marked Ones that broke the franchise in a way with its storytelling but opening the door wide open for what was going to happen. Unfortunately, The Ghost Dimension was a bit of a miss. It didn't answer any of the questions that had been building up in the story. And it was labelled to the culmination of everything that had happened so far. To say I was disappointed, that's an understatement.
When I had heard that there was going to be a new Paranormal Activity film, I couldn't help but be excited. This is a franchise that just works well for me. It hit at a time when I was in a rough time in my life. So it was my getaway from things. Instantly, I started trying to figure out how they could possibly make a new film and what the heck that would even look like. Because The Ghost Dimension was supposed to be the end of the initial set of films. But when I heard that William Eubank was going to be directing from a script by Christopher Landon, I was even more pumped. William Eubank had crafted the amazing film - Underwater. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. It's an amazing film that was lost in the pandemic.
I had known that the trailer had hit. However, I made it my personal mission to stay away from the trailers. I did not want to see anything before seeing the film itself. I wanted this to be the first time when I see a film, I got the chance to go in completely blind. The only thing I had known about Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin was its story sypnosis.
The film follows a documentary crew led by Margot (Emily Bader), Chris (Roland Buck III), and Dale (Dan Lippert). It's a very small crew. Actually that's one of the really best parts of Next of Kin is its cast. Everyone delivers some really fantastic performances. Though with Tom Nowicki's performance as Jacob, it feels like he's channeling his inner Clancy Brown. That's not really a knack against because it's still a solid performance. Back to the story, the crew is investigating Margot's connection to an Amish family. That's about as much into the story as I'll discuss at this moment. If I go into things much deeper, then it'll be heading into spoiler territory and that would do a disservice to the film.
Now when people hear 'Paranormal Activity', they immediately know exactly what kind of film they are in for. It immediately has a set of expectations. I am happy to say that all of the expectations I had for this film were blown away. The best comparison I can make is that this does for Paranormal Activity what Wrong Turn '21 did for that series. Does it have a lot of spooks in it? It does to an extent. However it takes any of the expectations of what a Paranormal Activity movie is and completely redefines it. This is definitely new ground while also harkening back what made the original film so successful.
There is one sequence that very much felt like Eubank's work on Underwater. And that is such a fantastic thing.
The best thing about this film is that its characters have a lot of heart to them. They are not cookie-cutter shallow tropes. They have a history to them. They are grounded in a way. The world that is crafted is a more realistic take on things. But by the end of the film, I was floored by where the story ends. It has me so excited to see if there is another installment in this new storyline. And if there is, are they going to find a way of tying things back to the original franchise? Only time can tell. I am hoping for a sequel.
Now this film was originally to be released back in March, but due to pandemic times. Everything got pushed back to ensure the safety precautions. And then it wasn't known if it was going to be released at all this year. Thankfully the film was able to see release due to Paramount+. Yeah, its weird that another streaming service has another exclusive film. So to keep up with things, it means signing up for another. But honestly, it's not that bad of a deal. It allows people to experience the film in a bit of a safe manner. The way I actually look at it, it reminds me of how films used to be released direct to video. It feels like its the modern day version of that. How will that affect the film's performance? Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. I'm hoping that people will go in with an open mind about it because Next of Kin is very much a solid entry to the franchise.
Rating: 4 out of 5. (It's one that will be fun to return to from time to time.)
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