PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES

In the residential complex where Jesse lives, strange things happen related to Anna, the mysterious basement tenant whom everyone considers a witch. When Anna is found dead murdered and the culprit seems to be the young Oscar, Jesse and his friend Hector begin to be curious about the events. One night, the two sneak into Anna's apartment and find strange ritual objects and also photos of Jesse. The next morning, the boy has a strange mark on his arm, a sort of bite, and has developed capabilities beyond the norm that give him superhuman strength and the ability to abolish the law of gravity. But of course, these abilities have their price… If in 2007 someone had told Oren Peli that his "little film," which at the time was circulating through university campuses, would be one of the most profitable films in the history of contemporary cinema and would give rise to a long cult saga, that young man who worked as a video game designer would probably have laughed. Yet that success, which legend attributes to Steven Spielberg's cinematic phobias, actually arrived, and "Paranormal Activity" became the most watched, imitated, parodied, loved-hated horror film in recent cinematic history, generating three sequels – to date, but a "Paranormal Activity 5" is in production – a spurious spin-off titled "Tokyo Nights" and an official spin-off strongly desired by Oren Peli himself and the partner/producer Jason Blum, "The Marked Ones." The idea behind "The Marked Ones," which in the original version is called "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" revealing its connection to the saga, is to create a chapter that would stand apart from the main storyline to open new narrative horizons to be exploited in the future of the series and perhaps bring together the story we have seen in the four previous films. At the same time, Blum and Peli had the idea of dedicating this chapter to Latino culture, given that a really significant portion of the potential U.S. audience is composed of Hispanics. The result is pleasant, very carefree, rich in action and geared towards "messing around" much more than has been seen so far in this saga. First of all, for the first time in the "Paranormal Activity" film series, there are no closed-circuit camera recordings, no numerical scanning of the nights, and there is not a single location as an explanation for the supernatural presences. But there is also not the interesting technological turn of "Paranormal Activity 4" with webcams, smartphones, and Kinect. The recordings are provided by a simple HD Handycam video camera that the protagonists always carry with them, wherever they go, recording their pranks and their daily lives. From this point of view, "The Marked Ones" is a step backward in terms of innovation; it rests on styles and languages widely used in the past and elsewhere, resembling any mockumentary. It doesn't even seem like you're watching a film from the "Paranormal Activity" saga, and this also derives from the thematic path taken by the film, more dedicated to teen comedy and action, to the point that at first it seems almost like you're in the territories of "Project X" that at a certain point is contaminated with "Chronicle" due to the almost superhero-like turn given by the "superpowers" that Jesse acquires. There is rhythm, lots of rhythm, in "The Marked Ones," completely abolishing the static repetitiveness and the waiting that were distinctive features of the previous chapters. Jesse and Hector do things typical of American teenagers, a bit silly as the media has always described them, all seasoned with some timid references to the superstition of Latin American peoples that fits almost perfectly with what we know from the other chapters of the saga, with the addition of some elements that contribute to creating an interesting mythology around the demon and the cult of those who worship it. As happened in "Paranormal Activity 4," "The Marked Ones" also has a more cinematic teen-horror cut than in the past, that is, a well-defined architecture is perceived that touches the classic steps of cinematic narration, thus diminishing that halo of realism that this saga initially wanted to create. Now, any presumption of "truth" has gone down the drain, there is awareness, and even the fact that the characters continue to make recordings even in moments of danger seems almost a precise choice that tends to underline the intention of cinematic entertainment, abandoning any attempt at justification. The mockumentary has become a style perfectly absorbed by horror and viewers; there is no longer any need to worry about why and how certain images arrived on the screen. It should be said, however, that the pure entertainment spectacle that underlies "The Marked Ones" affects the more properly horror success of the product. Here there are young tattooed criminals who wield pump-action shotguns and Uzi to blow heads, at times the threshold of ridicule is dangerously touched and the scares are so well-known and predictable that they don't even make the viewer blink. That is, what worked in (almost) all "Paranormal Activity," with that sense of anguishing terror given by invisible presences that populate our daily lives, is here completely nullified and voluntarily omitted to make room for the braggart. You have fun, this is undeniable, but not a shadow of a scare. Still, better some pounds of "boo" at a low cost and joke action than the soporific recordings of the pool pump of "Paranormal Activity 2" and the strange connections that the director and screenwriter Christopher Landon advances regarding the first chapter open infinite "worm" narrative futures. If you know how to play along, you will appreciate it. Rounded-up vote.