Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Directors:

Henry Joost
Ariel Schulman

Writers (WGA):

Christopher Landon (screenplay)
Chad Feehan (story)
(more)

Release Date:

19 October 2012 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

It's Closer Than You Think

Plot:

It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and a suburban family witness strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in.

Plot Keywords:

Laptop Computer | Demon | Cat | Sequel | Imaginary Friend

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Katie Featherston	...	Katie
Kathryn Newton	...	Alex
Sprague Grayden	...	Kristi
Matt Shively	...	Ben
Alexondra Lee	...	Holly
Stephen Dunham	...	Doug
Sara Mornell	...	Debbie
Brady Allen	...	Robbie
Aiden Lovekamp	...	Wyatt
Alisha Boe	...	Tara
Brendon Eggertsen	...	Derek
Brian Boland	...	Daniel
Rightor Doyle	...	Referee
William Juan Prieto	...	Hunter
Georgica Pettus	...	Sarah
Constance Esposito	...	Robbie's mom's friend
Jonah Pasco	...	Shadow Boy
Ty Dawson	...	Shadow Boy

Directed by
Henry Joost
Ariel Schulman

Writing credits (WGA)
Christopher Landon		(screenplay)
Chad Feehan		(story)
Oren Peli		(film "Paranormal Activity")

Produced by
Jason Blum	....	producer
Akiva Goldsman	....	executive producer
James Moran	....	associate producer
Oren Peli	....	producer
Gregory Plotkin	....	co-producer
Steven Schneider	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Doug Emmett

Film Editing by
Gregory Plotkin

Casting by
Terri Taylor

Production Design by
Jennifer Spence

Art Direction by
Jason Garner

Set Decoration by
Lori Mazuer

Costume Design by
Leah Butler

Makeup Department
Robert Hall	....	special makeup designer: Almost Human Inc
Paula Jane Hamilton	....	makeup department head

Production Management
Ralph Bertelle	....	executive in charge of production
Jason Pomerantz	....	production manager (IMAX Version)
Richard Stirling	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Danny Giles	....	second second assistant director
James Moran	....	first assistant director
James Moran	....	second unit director
Marc Newland	....	first assistant director: second unit
Marc Newland	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Bonnie Betancourt	....	shopper
Natalie Contreras	....	buyer
Natalie Contreras	....	shopper
T. Scott Elliott	....	set dresser
James Fernandez	....	on-set dresser
Marc Meisels	....	set dresser
Randy Molique	....	set dresser
Peter Van Zyl	....	greensman
Daniel Vazquez	....	set dresser (uncredited)

Sound Department
Walter Anderson	....	sound mixer
Paul Aulicino	....	assistant supervising sound editor
Ron Bedrosian	....	adr mixer
Peter Brown	....	supervising sound editor
Kris Fenske	....	sound effects editor
Nerses Gezalyan	....	sound mixer
Daniel A. Greenwald	....	boom operator
Glynna Grimala	....	ADR Supervisor
Laura R. Harris	....	dialogue editor
Gary A. Hecker	....	supervising foley artist
Craig Mann	....	sound re-recording mixer
Gary Marullo	....	foley artist
Mike Prestwood Smith	....	sound re-recording mixer
Douglas Shamburger	....	boom operator
John C. Stuver	....	dialogue editor
Jon Title	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
Mark Gullesserian	....	special effects coordinator
Ted Robinson	....	special effects technician

Visual Effects by
Beth D'Amato	....	digital paint and roto supervisor
Nick Hsieh	....	cg supervisor: Base FX
Simon Marinof	....	digital compositor
Shawn Monaghan	....	digital compositor: ILM
Karen M. Nichols	....	look development
Erik Pampel	....	visual effects editor: ILM
Eddie Pasquarello	....	visual effects supervisor
Sam Stewart	....	digital paint and rotoscope artist: ILM
Jeremy Therrien	....	assistant technical director

Stunts
James Armstrong	....	stunt coordinator
Tyler Barnett	....	utility stunts
Emily Brobst	....	stunts
Jay Caputo	....	stunt rigger
Jennifer Caputo	....	utility stunts
Dennis Fitzgerald	....	utility stunts
Dorian Kingi	....	stunts
Megan Lurty	....	stunt double: Alex
Simon Potter	....	stunt rigger
Buddy Sosthand	....	stunts
Sera Trimble	....	stunt driver
Bryon Weiss	....	stunt rigger

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Farley	....	key grip
Edward 'Gooch' Gutierrez	....	grip
Dean Hendler	....	still photographer
Joseph Joyce	....	second assistant camera: "a" camera
Jordan C. Kadovitz	....	computer video playback
Jordan C. Kadovitz	....	key video assist
Aaron Kroger	....	outpost engineer
Nicholas Lareau	....	outpost engineer
Damon Liebowitz	....	gaffer
Oliver Mancebo	....	digital imaging technician
David Peirce	....	grip
Greg Reyher	....	electrician
Sean Roberts	....	electrician
Larry Sushinski	....	electrician
Buddy Allen Thomas	....	first assistant camera: "a" camera
Mike Visencio	....	set lighting best boy
Brian Woronec	....	console operator

Casting Department
Sarah Domeier	....	casting assistant
Patty Majorczak-Connolly	....	adr voice casting
John McAlary	....	casting associate
Mark Sussman	....	adr voice casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rebecca M. Graves	....	costumer
Rosa Lopez	....	key costumer
Tania Pacheco	....	key costumer

Editorial Department
Michel Aller	....	additional editor
Brian Gee	....	nextLAB operator
Mark Griffith	....	digital intermediate colorist
Greg Hollander	....	post-production assistant
George Koran	....	digital intermediate additional colorist
Sarah Lucky	....	assistant editor
Gray Marshall	....	vfx editor
Timothy Llewellyn Moxey	....	nextLAB operator (as Timothy Moxey)
Harry Muller	....	color timer
Joe Rosenbloom	....	apprentice film editor
Bill Schultz	....	digital intermediate executive
Daniel Sessoms	....	nextLAB operator

Music Department
Daniel Wehr	....	musical sound designer

Transportation Department
Randy Peters	....	transportation coordinator
Scott Philbrick	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Michael Wesley Aycock	....	key assistant location manager
Benjamin Scott Baker	....	medic
Benjamin Scott Baker	....	set nurse
Keith Blomberg	....	personal assistant to Mr. Blum
Joshua Butt	....	production assistant
Steven Davis	....	computer graphics /video playback supervisor
Andrew Emilio DeCesare	....	production staff
Paula Henry	....	production assistant
Julia Heymans	....	production assistant
Brianna Hoskins	....	assistant production coordinator
Lynn Johnson	....	set medic
Jessica Kivnik	....	assistant to: Mr. Landon
Jessica Kivnik	....	script coordinator
Ryan Lacen	....	production assistant
Megan Lurty	....	key production assistant
Brandon Moore	....	assistant to Steven Schneider
Amber Perez	....	production assistant
Chelsea Peters	....	assistant: Mr. Blum
Jess Pineda	....	assistant to Zack Estrin
Sam Schweikert	....	set production assistant
Patrick R. Siembieda	....	production accountant
Jenny Siff	....	script supervisor: second unit
Diane Weiss	....	script supervisor
Mandy Yaeger	....	production coordinator

Thanks
Stephen Dunham	....	in memory of

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures (presents)
• Blumhouse Productions (as Blumhouse)
• Solana Films
• Room 101 (as Room 101, Inc.)

Distributors

• Paramount Japan (2012) (Japan) (theatrical) (as Paramount Pictures Japan)
• Paramount Pictures Entertainment (2012) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2012) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2012) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2012) (France) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2012) (USA) (theatrical)
• Solar Entertainment (2012) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2012) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2012) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2012) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2012) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures International (UPI) (2012) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2013) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2013) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2013) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2013) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Zon Audiovisuais (2012) (Portugal) (all media)

Special Effects

• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Soundelux  post-production sound services
• Todd-AO Studios  post-production sound services

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violence/terror

Runtime:

88 min | 96 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | Datasat

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #47943) | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | India:A | Portugal:M/16 | France:U (with warning) | Japan:G | Philippines:R-13 | Argentina:13 | Italy:T | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Henderson, Nevada, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In the theatrical release, after the credits there is an easter egg for the Latino spin off of Paranormal Activity. This is cut from home video versions.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the ball bounces down the stairs Alex goes up to investigate the noise, the ball is still on the stairs. When she comes back down again the ball is nowhere to be seen.

Quotes:

Alex:Dad, what is that?
Doug:That is awesome!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Half in the Bag: Sinister and Paranormal Activity 4 (#2.20)" (2012)

Soundtrack:

Hail Mary

Rustles up basic, cookie-cutter scares and shortchanges the exposition it needs to begin piecing together

It has become an unintentional October ritual that I decorate the house for Halloween, watch a few horror films, and, since 2009, see the latest installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise. When I walked out of the original film on that faithful October morning, I hoped that the wonderful picture I had just saw would be left alone, and not have the albatrosses known as sequels leaching off of it.

Now I'm faced with the fourth film in the genre, directed by the extremely talented directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who made one of 2010's finest documentaries, Catfish. This installment is a small improvement over the uninspired third part, yet it has little to offer. The characters are a tad more tolerable, and some sequences, including the end, have a bit more life in them, but when the moments examine the paranormal inactivity of it all, it becomes totally vanilla.

After two films we finally reconnect with Katie from the original film, this time, living on an upper-middle class suburban block with Hunter from the second film. Only in this part, he's called "Robbie," not "Hunter" and is about six years old. Don't question. Turns out, they have moved across the street from fifteen year old Alex (Kathryn Newton), her tech-savvy boyfriend Ben, who doesn't live there but might as well (Matt Shively, of True Jackson, VP fame), her younger brother Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp), and her parents (Stephen Dunham and Alexondra Lee). When Katie is taken to the hospital for unknown reasons, Robbie (Brady Allen), who already loves to venture into the neighbors' backyard and hang out in the treehouse, is sent to be cared for at Alex's home for the next few days.

Robbie immediately strikes up an unsettling friendship with Wyatt, and it isn't long before Alex and her goofy boyfriend become victim to the paranormal activity occurring in the household. Everything from falling chandeliers, to dining room chairs moving out abruptly, to knives falling, loud thumps, and alarms claiming "FRONT DOOR OPEN, BACK DOOR OPEN" occur and there is little consistency with anything.

Many different cameras are utilized throughout the film, mainly Alex's webcam on her laptop, which she apparently carts around with her everywhere she goes. The main camera is the one on the Xbox 360's Kinect (for those unaware, a mechanism that now comes equipped with the console, which allows the person to use the tiny sensor on the device to utilize motion control and be able to control their character without a formal controller), which, when on, creates little small, green dots that glow and showcase night-vision movement. It's a nifty little novelty, and we can at least see that Joost and Schulman have respectively tried to breed life back into the way these pictures are filmed.

Thank goodness, because there's little that can be done with the story and the scares. We get a barrage of different jump scares, many inactive nights, and lots of abrupt noises always followed up by a startled "hello?" from one of the characters. These films have gotten to be achingly predictable, and it feels like every year since 2010, I've gone on a lunch-date with a person whose intentions I like, but personality and charm I've come to loathe.

I think besides the nifty camera-work, what elevates Paranormal Activity 4 from the monotony and the drabness of the previous installment, is the fact that we have at least marginally tolerable characters to watch as well. Alex and Ben are at times, a humorous riot, and at others, dreadfully unremarkable. Easily, they are the most fun to be with since Katie and Micah, but Katie and Micah were at least trapped in a film that was fun to experience for the first time in a fresh, original manner. Here, we've become so accustomed to this formula that we continue to anticipate every twist and every turn, and we watch in plain awe to see the films border more and more on the line of self-parody.

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. It seems every film, we get a different entity and no explanation surrounding it. When will we get the explanation of Katie's action during the first installment? Or her sister's spontaneous ones in the sequel? Or what about "Toby," or whoever the imaginary figure was in the third film? And don't forget about whatever the hell that was at the end of the third film, and this film, for that matter. Just another sidenote; the last fifteen minutes of this film did not scar me for life, much like its predecessor's.

Paranormal Activity 4 is effective in rustling up scare-attempt after scare-attempt on a basic level, yet shortchanges the larger questions that would offer insight to Katie's family if explored. Some viewers may not want to be bothered by lengthy explanations of the countless questions still at hand or the numerous symbols that have been associated with the demonic creatures in these films. Perhaps so, but to watch the fourth film in a series continue to be resistant in exploring the exposition of its characters doesn't seem like an ideal move. Considering audiences seem to be tiring from the bang-and-scare features the found footage genre has inspired, it would be a pity to see this franchise die before it can fully clean up its messy tracks.

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively, Katie Featherston, Brady Allen, Aiden Lovekamp, Stephen Dunham, and Alexondra Lee. Directed by: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.