Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home.

Directors:

Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Writers:

Christopher Landon, Oren Peli (film "Paranormal Activity")

Stars:

Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Christopher Nicholas Smith

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lauren Bittner	...	Julie
Christopher Nicholas Smith	...	Dennis (as Chris Smith)
Chloe Csengery	...	Katie
Jessica Tyler Brown	...	Kristi (as Jessica Brown)
Hallie Foote	...	Grandma Lois
Dustin Ingram	...	Randy Rosen
Johanna Braddy	...	Lisa
Katie Featherston	...	Adult Katie
Brian Boland	...	Daniel
Sprague Grayden	...	Adult Kristi
William Juan Prieto	...	Hunter (as William Prieto)
Jackson Xenia Prieto	...	Hunter (as Jackson Prieto)
Paitoon Cheng	...	Ida
Eddie Medrano	...	Party Magician
Rebecca Delgado Smith	...	Crying Bridesmaid

Storyline

In 1988, in California, cinematographer Dennis moves to the house of his girlfriend Julie to raise a family with her daughters Katie and Kristi. Little Kristi has an imaginary friend named Toby while weird things happen in the house. Dennis decides to place cameras in the house to capture images during the night and soon he finds that there is an entity in the house. Dennis's friend Randy Rosen (Dustin Ingram) researches the events and learns that his house might be a coven of witches and the children may be in danger.

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Plot Keywords:

looking at oneself in a mirror | no music | younger version of character | 1980s | supernatural power | 

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Taglines:

It Runs In The Family

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence, language, brief sexuality and drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

Very little set dressing was done on the house from Paranormal Activity 3: "We would walk into [some of the potential locations] and it would be like they were frozen in the 80s," said Peli. "We wouldn't even need to do too much to them. So, sometimes you get lucky. [...] We didn't want to throw the 80s thing in your face too much. We didn't want it to make it hugely like, 'Look, it's the 80s!"

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Goofs

While the film takes place in 1988, the home video tapes are presented in wide screen and high-definition quality. However, this is a necessary and deliberate change on the part of the crew, and not an error. Producing a movie with "authentic" quality based on the equipment that existed back then would make a horrible quality for it to be seen in theaters and the movie would be unusable to most theaters.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Daniel: [documenting behind the camera] You'll be spending a lot of time in here. This is gonna be your room. There's some kind of animal being de-liced or something. Compression chamber, that's your crib. It's hermetically sealed. And this is your paint color. What color is that, hon?
Adult Kristi: Jamaica bay blue.

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Crazy Credits

In the middle of the closing credits, in keeping with the 1988 period of the film, the Paramount logo that was used circa 1988 is shown.

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Alternate Versions

Includes an unrated director's cut and "lost tapes" (Dennis' pranking Julie and a commercial of his video company.)

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Most Underrated Horror Movie Sequels Ever (2020)

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Soundtracks

See the Sunlight
Written & Performed by Jack Dolgen (as Jack Selig Dolgen) & Caleb Shreve

User Reviews

A welcome prequel... but slightly vacuous. Let's hope they don't milk the franchise any more than it needs.

All the elements remain: constant filming of the house, some unpredictable scares and frights, morbid obsession with finding out what's behind all the activity, but it feels like it opens up and raises just as many questions as it tries to answer. In this prequel we are shown life in the late '80s as the family deals with an unseen force disturbing the family's idyllic peace and wellbeing. We are presented with some insight into how and why these things haunt Katie in her later life, but it still feels like it's missing something. Overall, though, it's an entertaining 1.5 hours, but nothing incredibly new is here. See it, but don't set the bar too high. 6/10.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Paranormal Activity 3

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$52,568,183, 23 October 2011

Gross USA:

$104,028,807

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$207,039,844

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Solana Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min 94 min (unrated director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS Datasat Dolby Surround 7.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1