**This post contains spoilers, including thoughts on the extended version**
The Story- In 1988, Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) and her sister, Katie (Chloe Csengery) are stalked and tormented by an evil force named Tobi in Santa Rosa, California. Kristi, believing Tobi is her imaginary friend, befriends the entity.
Kristi and Katie’s mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner), her boyfriend, Dennis (Chris Smith), and Dennis’ friend, Randy (Dustin Ingram) find themselves targeted by Tobi. What does Tobi want, and why are Kristi and Katie so important for his plans?
My Thoughts- We finally have a name! Tobi is the entity that’s responsible for causing so much trouble in Kristi and Katie’s lives. There’s a strange irony to Kristi’s relationship with Tobi. It’s perfectly normal for a small child to have an imaginary friend, but Tobi is obviously no ordinary imaginary friend. He’s pure evil, and extremely dangerous. But you’ll notice how Kristi, this young, happy and carefree girl, isn’t afraid him.
Kristi and Tobi actually have a weird playful relationship. There’s also a point in the movie, where Kristi boldly stands up to Tobi. Kristi eventually caves to Tobi’s demands, BUT she only agreed to do so to protect Katie. Jessica Tyler Brown delivers an awesome performance. Just imagine this small child showing no fear towards a literal demon, going as far as playing games with Tobi, and Kristi never flinches in his presence. Surreal stuff.
Lauren Bittner plays the loving and caring mother, who’s dedicated to protecting her daughters. Dennis? He’s kind of goofy. There’s some similarities between Julie and Dennis’ relationship and Katie and Micah’s relationship in the original.
You could say Dennis is a doofus. He’s obsessed with recording everything, using unconventional methods to capture Tobi’s activities. Julie gets to a point, where’s she’s frustrated with Dennis and his cameras, believing he’s doing more harm than good. But Dennis genuinely cares about and wants to protect Kristi and Katie. Dennis researches and reads up on demonology to find more answers. He’s willing to risk his life to ensure Kristi and Katie’s safety, especially during the final stages of the movie, so it’s easy to connect him to Micah.
Paranormal Activity 3 has some funny bits of humor. There’s the fake out jump scare, with Julie wearing a monster mask, and most of the interactions and arguments between Dennis and Randy. Randy trying his best to stay cool and comfort a frightened Katie during the Bloody Mary scene sticks out. And the aftermath with Randy losing it during an argument with Dennis, where he urges him to take the situation more seriously (“this isn’t Casper the friendly f****** ghost you’re chasing, man!”).
Dennis is a wedding videographer, so he has experience with cameras, and he’s trying to prove to Julie that a supernatural force is targeting Kristi and Katie. That’s more than enough to justify recording for a found-footage film.
Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman added a new POV trick here. The kitchen camera is set up on an oscillating fan base, slowly moving back and forth from the kitchen to the family room. The kitchen camera breaks up the monotony of the stationary cameras, and the sometimes tedious Night #1, Night #2, and so on format. A bed sheet ghost? Could it be Katie or Kristi playing a joke on the babysitter, Lisa (Johanna Braddy)? Nope. It’s more mind games from Tobi. Perfect timing for the bed sheet falling flat to the ground, before Lisa turns around. There’s a nice element of unpredictability, because anything can happen at any given time on either side of the camera, including Tobi popping a lightbulb, or the fantastic kitchen jump scare, where Julie finally realizes Dennis was telling the truth.
So Grandma Lois (Hallie Foote) already knows about Tobi? And she’s apart of a coven of witches? After two films, it’s already been established Katie and Kristi are dealing with a possession, not a haunting, so just leaving the house won’t solve any problems. The only clue that you could possibly point to for Lois’ involvement in all of this is, her disapproval of Dennis as a man and a provider. It’s during the scene where Lois and Julie are talking in Katie and Kristi’s room, but you could also simply see it as an overprotective mother wanting the best for her daughter.
I always expected Tobi to attack again at Lois’ house. What I didn’t see coming was Lois’ connection to Tobi, the appearance of witches (although you could say they already teased that, with Dennis showing Julie a picture of the coven), and Lois clearly preparing Katie and Kristi for some kind of sinister ritual. Think about the scene, where Lois was way too enamored with Kristi playing dress-up as a bride for Tobi. That ties into Dennis’ research about the coven, where girls are manipulated and brainwashed into eventually giving birth to boys, a process leading to the born males forcibly being offered to Tobi. Kristi gives birth to Hunter in Paranormal Activity 2.
It’s a good tense finale, with one nail-biter after another. Dennis carefully searching for Julie, Kristi, and Katie in the dark. The sight of Julie’s floating corpse at the top of the staircase, the bonfire outside, the witches following Dennis, the creepy silhouette of a woman in the window (presumably Lois or a witch, because Julie was already dead) and Dennis and Kristi hiding in the closet. The final moments with a possessed Katie growling at Dennis, and Tobi literally snapping Dennis’ back in half caps off a brutal and grim ending, followed by Lois leading Katie Kristi upstairs with Tobi.
Remember the break-in from Paranormal Activity 2? Paranormal Activity 3 starts off with footage from the second film revealing that someone stole Dennis’ VHS tapes with the footage from Katie and Kristi’s childhoods from Katie’s house. Keep in my mind this happened in 2005. Katie and Kristi weren’t under Tobi’s influence yet, Katie was still pregnant with Hunter, and Lois is dead. So the witches had to be the ones, who stole the tapes.
Tobi is selective about his victims. Tobi could’ve easily killed Randy or Lisa. He spared Randy and Lisa, but Dennis and Julie were murdered. Why? I’ve always believed Tobi will only kill anyone, who persistently disrupts his plans, or anyone who protects his targets. Dennis and Julie were willing to risk their lives to save Kristi and Katie. Randy and Lisa were given stern warnings about what might happen to them, if they interfered, so they ran and never looked back.
More extended footage for PA 3. Dennis and Ryan laughing at a drunk woman from one of his wedding videos. Dennis, Katie, and Kristi playing a prank on Randy. And there’s more extended footage with Kristi playing and having fun with Tobi at night.
There’s the scene with Kristi and Katie playing Bloody Mary, but Julie interrupts them before they can finish. The Bloody Mary scene is a weird one for me. I’ve always wondered if it’s Tobi in the bathroom with them, or is it the Bloody Mary demon? Going back to the Bloody Mary scene with Randy and Katie, you can see proof of Tobi knocking and throwing things around outside of the bathroom, so is the Bloody Mary demon the one, who attacked Randy, or was it Tobi? Or is it possible Katie and Randy were trapped between Bloody Mary in the bathroom and Tobi outside? In one of the trailers for PA 3, there’s a dark, ghostly woman standing in the mirror after Katie and Kristi leave the bathroom, and Bloody Mary is on a short list of people, who could actually fill that spot.
Night #7 is exclusive to the extended version/director’s cut. Nothing major happens. Dennis goes to investigate noises in the middle of the night, so more mind games and taunting from Tobi. And there’s the scene, where Kristi’s teddy bear is sitting alone in front of the camera, and Tobi slowly closes the door behind it, when no one’s around. Again, the extended footage doesn’t change the direction of the story. Nothing has an impact on how the ending plays out, so it’s more extra filler footage.
Fun fact about the trailers for Paranormal Activity 3. There’s a trailer out there that’s completely different from anything you’ll see in the movie. To take it a step further, the vast majority of the footage in the first trailer below doesn’t make it into the theatrical or extended versions of the movie. No priest (or possibly a paranormal expert or a psychic similar to Dr. Fredrichs in the original) warning Julie about her family’s past, no burning house, and that scene with Julie seeing Tobi in Kristi and Katie’s room are all cut out of both versions.
Julie only watches the one tape with Tobi after the earthquake. In both versions, she flat out refuses to believe he exists, until the kitchen scene happens. The second trailer is closer to everything you’ll see in the movie. The biggest difference is, the shadow of the woman (presumably the Bloody Mary demon) after Katie and Kristi are done playing Bloody Mary. I can understand reshoots. It happens. Still, it’s really strange how they never put any of this on any of the DVDs or Blu-Rays, but maybe it’ll happen one day!
Three films in, and you’ll start to notice a pattern for Paranormal Activity. Tobi zeros in on someone in the house. Katie, Kristi, Hunter, and now it’s a young Katie and Kristi. A lot of things that go bump in the night mind games from Tobi. Going back to Paranormal Activity 2, someone in the house doesn’t believe in supernatural events until it’s too late. and Tobi gets what he wants in the end. Dan was the non believer in PA 2. Julie fills that role here, and Tobi gets what he wants in the end. The Paranormal Activity films are about demonic possessions, not hauntings. It covers any logical gaps for the main characters not leaving the house, when it’s clear something is horribly wrong. Julie and Dennis actually left the house here, but running away only led to disastrous results.
Keep a close eye on the interactions and the relationship between Tobi, Katie, and Kristi. Kristi plays around with Tobi. She has fun with him, and Kristi was always supposed to give birth to Hunter. Shifting over to Katie, it’s not hard to notice how Tobi is far more harsh towards her. Katie is terrified of Tobi, when she finally realizes he’s more than an imaginary friend.
As the series progresses, Katie takes on the role of Tobi’s enforcer. And we already know what happened to Kristi, who was closer to Tobi as a child in PA 2. I’ve always wondered if there was more to Tobi’s decision to be so rough on Katie as a kid, going beyond the obvious attempts to convince her that he’s real and dangerous. Maybe Tobi was preparing Katie for her future role? A weird and twisted version of tough love, mixed with physicality. Impossible to ignore the irony for Kristi filling the spot of Tobi’s favorite as a child, but an adult Katie takes control of that position, joining Tobi in a darker, sinister, and more matured relationship.
Paranormal Activity 3 is a strong prequel. The finale is loaded with a whirlwind of unnerving and tense moments, genuinely shocking reveals and twists, and a startling cliffhanger. A good amount of questions are answered from the previous two films. Paranormal Activity 3 also sheds light on new details, leading to new questions. Now we know witches (or The Midwives) are involved, and a symbol that represents their coven, that’s shown throughout the series after this film, is revealed here. And there’s still one big question surrounding Hunter: What is Tobi planning to do with him?
Rating- 7/10
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