Unsurprisingly, Blair Witch ignores the events of Book of Shadows, and goes back to the found footage genre. A bunch of young people head out to the Burkittsville woods to work out what happened to the original three who went missing. It feels overwhelmingly like a course correction, much like The Force Awakens. A case of, “Sorry about the last film, folks. Watch this and it’ll remind of what you liked about this story in the first place.”

And for the most part, it works. Blair Witch isn’t as raw or low budget as the original, but now we have a decent script with some good character development. Your mileage may vary – the amateurish nature of the first film is what made it such a hit, after all – but I for one couldn’t have sat through an entire film that was as free-form as the first one.

The cast is led by James Allen McCune and Callie Hernandez (soon to be seen in Alien: Covenant) and they do a good job in their respective roles, even if the screaming and panicking goes on just that bit too long. Corbin Reid and Brandon Scott are strong performers too, though the script doesn’t give them as much material to work with. Valorie Curry and Wes Robinson together have an offbeat presence that suits the film really well, and the choice to have a couple of strangers present, rather than simply a group of friends that have known each other for years, is a good one.

Is Blair Witch scary? Well, it’s certainly very noisy. There are moments that set me on edge, but I was just as often wishing the sound system wasn’t quite so loud. In terms of adding story elements to the franchise mythos, the film is much more successful. It expands upon some ideas from the first film, and reinterprets others. The film keeps up the pace, and is never as sluggish as the original.

The flaws? There is a lot of screaming, and yelling out people’s names. After a while, it gets draining. And secondly, this group set out with a lot of technology on hand – GPS trackers, walkie talkies – only to have the script ignore said technology for much of the running time.

Blair Witch won’t set the world on fire, but it’s a capable sequel with some very effective sequences. It builds on the ideas of the first film and is certainly capable of reigniting the franchise. Most importantly, I liked these people, which is more than I could say for the (admittedly much creepier) original.

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The first Paranormal Activity was a brilliant exercise in bare bones suspense. The best part about the film was the dread you felt each night, waiting for something to happen. Paranormal Activity 2 then surprised us all by being intrinsically linked with the events of the first film – and featured some of the best narrative retcons I’ve ever seen. Paranormal Activity 3 had a lot of fun with the 80s setting, though for the first time, the filmmakers didn’t even try to address the “why would anyone be filming this?” question that haunts all found footage movies. Paranormal Activity 4 had some great characters but seemed way too comfortable, barely advancing the overarching plot. The Marked Ones was touted as a spin-off but then blew my mind with a climax that went a long way to explaining events of the previous films, also providing the filmmakers with a get-out-of-jail-free clause, narratively speaking.

So now we find ourselves in The Ghost Dimension. Producer Jason Blum stated that he was tired of teasing, and wanted to start showing, and this film does intend show us a lot. The plot revolves around a Christmas get-together at the house of Ryan (Chris J. Murray) and Emily (Brit Shaw), and what happens when Ryan discovers an old-school film camera in the house they recently moved into. There’s something special about this camera, however, in that it sees things the naked eye cannot… Impossible things.

And herein lies the gimmick for this particular PA film – it was shot with 3D in mind. And for the first time in years, I’m actually disappointed I didn’t see a film in 3D. There are a heap of sequences that would have worked well, despite being a postproduction conversion. Even more surprisingly, the presence of a lot of CGI works well also! The main effect, kind of like watching ink in water, is distinct enough that it’s creepy, yet still leaves a lot to the imagination. After five films of keeping the scary stuff hidden, it’s fair enough that they decided to finally show us something.

As the story unfolds, it’s clear that the filmmakers were keen to explain a lot of what was happening in both the previous films and this one. As such, this film is quite exposition-heavy, and it loses a lot of the vaguely cinéma vérité style that worked so well previously. And as we near the climax however, it does indeed seem that everything is coming together…

…and then they drop the ball completely. I won’t spoil anything here, but the last ten minutes of The Ghost Dimension is terribly disappointing. Not only do the filmmakers not address a significant event that’s been teased ever since the first film, they also serve up a resolution that’s exactly the same as that which we’ve seen before. The conclusion doesn’t feel any more significant than the previous films.

If anything, this makes The Ghost Dimension the most disappointing in the entire series for me, especially because I had a much better ending worked out in my head – and it wouldn’t have even been any more expensive. Considering how many times the release date was pushed back, I do wonder whether they considered multiple endings before settling on the ever so mundane one in the final cut.

I’m disappointed in you, PA! A couple of tweaks here and there, and this could have been a great conclusion to what has been, for me, a very strong horror franchise.

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For you see, here we have a found footage movie featuring a couple of teenagers filming creepy goings-on in their grandparents’ house in the country. There are many instances of ‘why they hell would anyone be filming right about now?’ and the soundtrack even features the same ominous PA bass rumble before the creepy stuff happens. Let me make this clear: if you hate the PA films, you won’t like this.

The Visit is, however, clearly a Shyamalan film. All the character arcs, Chekov guns and narrative themes are present, including his favourite ever story-within-a-story gimmick. As you’d expect, he expertly directs his young actors, Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould, and elicits some amazingly adult performances from them.

DeJonge and Oxenbould play Becca and Tyler, siblings who have been invited to stay with their grandparents, whom they’ve never met. Years ago, her mother walked out on her parents and never looked back. Becca and Tyler are keen to meet them, and perhaps find out what went wrong all that time ago. And, wouldn’t you know it, Becca’s an inspiring filmmaker, so plans to make a documentary about their week away.

DeJonge and Oxenbould are fantastic, and it’s their characters’ relationship that’s the real triumph here. These aren’t bickering siblings – they truly look out for each other, and there are several scenes that are incredibly touching. It also helps that they really look like brother and sister.

From the first ten minutes, it’s apparent that Shyamalan and the found footage conceit don’t make for perfect cinema. Whilst he excels at it in short bursts (remember the birthday party in Signs?), here he never comes close to cinéma vérité. Sure, he has an excuse: Becca’s always performing, playing the documentary filmmaker, so the sense of artificiality doesn’t exactly ruin the film. But the awkwardness remains.

The pacing doesn’t feel quite right to me either. There’s no slow build-up of dread. More than once, something shocking happened but was so brief and so unexpected that I didn’t even have time to get scared. In fact, I wasn’t scared once in The Visit, which is weird considering how the first three Paranormal Activity films really got under my skin.

This is a horror comedy, with emphasis on the comedy. The problem is that it overwhelms the horror, so that you’re never actually on the edge of your seat or trembling with anticipation of the fright to come. The Visit certainly has its moments – and is nowhere near as dire as Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender or After Earth – but this isn’t a true return to form for Shyamalan.

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The entire film is from the perspective of Blaire’s (Shelley Hennig) computer screen. As the film starts, she’s listening to music, watching YouTube and Skyping her boyfriend, Mitch (Moses Storm). Very quickly, however, a hacker appears, sending them mysterious messages concerning the death of their peer Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) exactly one year earlier.

We never leave Blaire’s screen. It sounds frustrating, but the genius thing is that this opens up all sorts of storytelling techniques that you don’t get in your usual film. There are times when she’s talking to friends on Skype, yet she’s having a typed private conversation with someone else. We get to see her saying one thing, doing another; we even get to see her hesitation as she begins to type messages, then changes her mind. Even little things, such as seeing where her mouse pointer hovers, tell us what she’s thinking.

The film is told in real time, a breezy 80 minutes, and there is never a dull moment to be had. It’s a masterpiece of editing, and each moment of video lag is perfectly timed to up the creepiness factor of the weird goings-on. I should point out that I didn’t find the film even remotely scary, but I was hooked throughout, fascinated to see what would happen next.

A similar idea appeared in the V/H/S anthology film, with ‘The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger’. I don’t know if that short film inspired this feature, but Unfriended certainly takes the idea and improves upon it.

The trailer really doesn’t do this film justice. The performances are wonderfully naturalistic and the creepy events come thick and fast – if the sitting around waiting for something to happen shtick bugged you in the Paranormal Activity films, then this may be more your thing. The film isn’t perfect, however, and fumbles somewhat in the final moments.

I’m sure Blumhouse Productions have a sequel in the works, though I can’t really see where such a follow-up could go. As it stands now, however, Unfriended is a much better film than it had any reason to be. Brilliantly edited and with some nifty narrative techniques, it’s a cut above what you may expect.

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Paranormal Activity 2 was the really surprising one; a film that made clear it was expanding the boundaries of the franchise, rather than simply repeating the first instalment. From that point onwards, the story has become bigger and more complex, but unlike the previous annual horror series, Saw, this one isn’t quite so labyrinthine in its plotting. For the most part, fans have been able to follow the meta-narrative with reasonable clarity.

The Marked Ones was initially announced as a spin-off from the main series specifically aimed at the Latino community, who apparently make up a large portion of the PA audience. Having seen the film, I can now tell you that ‘spin-off’ isn’t an appropriate term. This is pretty much a full-blooded sequel. In fact, I’d say that The Marked Ones is the PA film that has the strongest ties to that which came before.

Set in 2012 in Oxnard, California, the ‘found footage’ is that of friends Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), who notice that there’s something weird about their downstairs neighbour, the cranky old Anna (Gloria Sandoval). Amid whispers of bruja, they decide to investigate the goings on in their apartment block. Together with Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh), they soon uncover evidence of demon worship and a coven right beneath their feet.

The major disappointment with this instalment is that the performances aren’t as strong. Even though PA 4 was underwhelming overall, at least the characters were as likable and believable as those who had come before. This time, the performances feel awkward and occasionally amateurish.

The next thing to note is that the film isn’t scary. At all. Then again, that’s been the case since number 3. The main reason for this is that they seem to have done everything possible within the confines of their own rules. This doesn’t bother me much anyway, since I still find the films entertaining. The budget seems to be much higher this time around, and there’s a clear increase in the amount of wirework stunts and CGI. The change into a more action-heavy film (comparatively speaking) is a welcome one, because the series will have to continue to evolve if it wants audiences to keep coming along to the cinema.

The Marked Ones plods along amiably enough, feeling like a bit of a crossover with both End of Watch and Chronicle, but then kicks into high gear during the climax. This is where the film really starts to tie together the threads left dangling from the previous entries. After the frustrating amount of new questions posed in PA 3 and 4, it’s nice to finally have things begin to coalesce.

Of course, this film is only for the fans. If you didn’t like any of the previous films, you won’t like this one either, and if you haven’t seen any of the previous films, you’ll be completely bewildered at the significance of many callbacks, moments and scenes. For me, however, the PA franchise keeps chugging along, and I look forward to the next one.

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This time, we get four short films, plus the overarching film that acts as a framing device for the viewing of the mysterious videotapes. ‘Phase 1 Clinical Trials’ is directed by Adam Wingard, of You’re Next fame, and features a young man having issues with his bionic eye, whilst ‘A Ride in the Park’ is directed by The Blair Witch Project‘s Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale, and sees a couple of hikers attacked by a zombie. Gareth Huw Evans and Timo Tjahjanto bring us easily the best of the lot, ‘Safe Haven’, which sees a news crew gaining exclusive access to a secretive Indonesian cult, and finally Hobo with a Shotgun‘s Jason Eisener directs ‘Slumber Party’, a chaotic fever dream featuring aliens and weird lights coming from a lake.

Frustratingly, the film that acts as the framing device, ‘Tape 49’, is only a smidge more interesting than ‘Tape 52’ from the first film. Rather than expand upon the concept and the narrative universe, it seems to close it off with half-hearted references to videotapes with mysterious powers, à la Ring (Ringu). It also features some rather generic characters doing all the frustrating things that people in horror movies have done for decades.

Of course, everything in V/H/S/2 is composed of found footage, so those who find handheld camerawork nausea-inducing should sit a long way from the screen. There were a couple of occasions where I had to look away – usually when the cameraman was running for his life – but for the most part I was fine.

The good news is that this sequel isn’t packed to the brim with male characters desperate to film females naked without their permission. That’s not to say that there aren’t any gratuitous boobs – there most certainly are – but at least it’s been dialled down a notch.

Evan’s ‘Safe Haven’ is the longest film and easily worth the price of admission. Whilst I wasn’t particularly taken with The Raid, he really excels here. This short film actually features distinguishable characters and narrative arcs, something missing from pretty much all of the films in this series – usually it’s just a case of ‘scary stuff happening to random people.’ ‘Safe Haven’ is an absolute must for horror fans.

If you enjoyed the variety and creativity on show in V/H/S, then you should check out this one. It’s a mixed bag, to be sure, but it does feature some genuinely scary, surprising and/or hilarious moments.

V/H/S/2 will be released on 22 August 2013.

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The performances are great, which is par for the course in the PA films, and Alex and Ben are particularly likeable central characters. As usual, none of the actors are bona fide stars, so giving the film that documentary-type feel is a breeze.

That said, PA4 is easily the worst entry in the series. I am still held captive by the ongoing narrative (and I dearly hope that they one day provide us with some closure) but the main problem would have to be that this film wasn’t even remotely scary. There are jumps to be had, sure, but the sense of dread I felt in the first three films is completely missing here. There is an amusing example of product placement courtesy of Xbox Kinect that is a bit of fun, but aside from that, there’s very little inventiveness this time around. We also get some videophone call footage – one wonders if the filmmakers caught the horror anthology V/H/S earlier this year which used the same idea with better results – and, because it’s 2011, we get some scenes recorded on an iPhone. Of course, this is apparently an iPhone from the future, since it looks suspiciously like HD even when blown up to cinema screen size, but I was able to suspend disbelief nonetheless.

I rewatched Paranormal Activity 3 the other day and actually enjoyed it a lot more than I did on the first occasion. Director Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman filled that film with a multitude of shocking and cleverly constructed moments. Number 4, on the other hand, feels kind of sparse in comparison. In case anybody was wondering, the initial trailer for this film is another case of false advertising – as with PA3, most of the footage didn’t make it to the final cut.

We shouldn’t expect any different at this stage, but fans should be aware that this film asks a lot of new questions, and doesn’t go towards explaining any of the unanswered ones posited by the third film. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next film (and let’s not pretend there won’t be one) is another prequel, perhaps focussing on Katie and Kristi’s teenage years, with the film after that being a direct sequel to this one, chronologically speaking.

There is still enjoyment to be had from this franchise – putting the pieces of the puzzle together is an enjoyable process – though they’d better start clearing some things up soon otherwise they’ll test the fans’ patience. Oh, and there’s a reason to stay to the end of the credits, also…

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This collection of short films is held together by a rather tenuous central story. A group of young men are paid to steal a certain videotape, but after breaking into the house they find the occupant dead in front of a collection of TV screens. As they go through the videocassettes in the house, we get to see the stories one by one, each featuring horrifying and sometimes fantastical imagery. All of the films are pieces of ‘found’ footage, and if you’re easily susceptible to motion sickness, I suggest you sit a long way from the screen, because the cameras are constantly moving.

As you would expect, some of the films are better than others. The first out the gate, ‘Amateur Night’, is the best of the lot with truly monstrous visual and makeup effects. Ti West’s ‘Second Honeymoon’ is up next and like his other films, The Innkeepers and The House of the Devil, it’s brilliantly directed and very disturbing, but in the final analysis also kinda frustrating. ‘Tuesday the 17th’ is ridiculous from start to finish, but boasts some clever ideas. ‘The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger’ makes ingenious use of videophone calls to chronicle a ghost story with a difference. Finally, ’10/31/98′ takes the traditional haunted house scenario and dials it up to 11, with some very tricky visual effects.

It’s a good collection of stories, and whilst the running time is almost two hours, at no point did it drag. Each of the films had me wondering what was going to happen next. The main problem, however, were the two main themes present throughout almost every tale. The first one is that apparently all young men are obsessed with filming naked women against their will. The second is that women are crazy. If this had popped up once or even twice, it would have been fine. But it happens time and time again. I don’t know if it was intentional – or indeed if the directors shared notes – but it sullies the overall experience when the various plots boil down to something so simple as ‘boobs are awesome and bitches be crazy’.

A lot of the publicity material talks about audiences throwing up in the cinema or leaving in disgust but the gore, whilst prominent, isn’t anything that a horror buff won’t have seen before. I wouldn’t be surprised if the handheld footage was what made people feel ill, however, because I spent a good couple of minutes looking away from the screen to try and alleviate my own motion sickness.

As an anthology of horror films, V/H/S features some wonderful work, though it’s disappointing that ‘Tape 56’, the film linking them together, fails to go anywhere interesting. The creativity and skill on show is truly impressive, even if it’s hampered by gauche and/or distasteful themes.

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As readers may have noticed, I’m quite a big fan of the found footage genre. Despite the occasional misfire like Diary of the Dead, I’m usually very happy with the results of the gimmick. Chronicle is the latest in a long line, though possibly the first to dabble in the superhero genre. As with many films of its ilk, the characters have to work hard to give us a reason as to why they’re filming everything, and Chronicle succeeds at this to only a limited extent. Despite this, it does come up with some nifty ways to shoot found footage without having the camera constantly shaking about erratically.

The story concerns three high school boys who acquire superpowers, and I don’t really feel the need to elucidate on the plot any further than that. There are rivalries and love interests, but for the most part that’s all you need to know. The first 25 minutes or so feel like a visual effects demo reel. It’s just shot after shot of kids trying out their powers, and begins to border on pointlessness. Then sh*t starts to get serious, which should be a good thing, except for the fact that it highlights more strongly the weakness of the script.

Basically, it’s like this: if someone showed me the synopsis of Chronicle, I’d be wondrously supportive. It’s a great idea, and the overall narrative arc makes a lot of sense. It’s the dialogue itself that’s clunky and ham-fisted, and above all too unbelievable for a found footage movie. The script advances the story in a slipshod rather than organic fashion. Our trio of young actors get the job done, but only at, say, the level of someone performing in a remake of an 80s horror movie. In other words, don’t expect to be wowed by a cinematic debut equal to Sharlto Copley’s turn in District 9.

The visual effects are disappointing also. It’s as if the budget couldn’t match the filmmakers’ ambition, so we’re subjected to crappy CGI and poor digital matte paintings again and again. I appreciate that the film had a tiny budget of $15 million, but that simply means they should have been more choosy when it came to visual effects shots. If there’d been better effects and fewer of them, the result would have been superior.

All in all, Chronicle is quite a letdown. If only some rewrites had been attempted on the screenplay then it would have been a corker of a film.

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The answer: yes and no. Paranormal Activity is no Scream 3, but at the same time, it is frustratingly less satisfactory that the previous two. Whilst PA 2 answered questions raised by PA 1, this film does nothing more than create loose ends. If you were hoping that this would signal an end to the franchise, then you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Kind of the second prequel in the series, PA 3 sees us transported back to 1988, when Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristie (Jessica Tyler Brown) are young kids living with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner) and her boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith). Kristi’s got an imaginary friend called Toby and there are all sorts of bumps in the night going on, so – this being a Paranormal Activity film – Dennis decides to set up cameras around the house in an attempt to catch what’s going on.

Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman have a great time devising a whole new series of scares, some of which are variations on stuff we’ve seen before and some which are entirely new. The ingenuity on show is brilliant, and it manages to make subtle changes to the PA formula that work rather well. For me, it wasn’t as scary as the first two, but there’s still that great sense of unease permeating the whole film.

There are, however, a couple of big problems. The first is simple and pops up whenever you make a ‘found footage’ film – why on Earth would people be filming at any given moment? The first two movies found a way around this and, for the most part, succeeded in making it a non-issue. PA 3 doesn’t. There are many, many occasions when cameras are filming in the most unlikely of scenarios, or a character is running for their life but has decided that they must continue to look through the viewfinder. It’s a small issue, but one that jars somewhat.

The second problem is a biggie, and it’s already been talked about online ad nauseum. We’ve all seen trailers that include moments that are left on the cutting room floor, but I’d estimate that about 80 per cent of the PA 3 trailer isn’t included in the film. It’s an interesting quirk that has angered and mystified people worldwide, but it does reveal something of the nature of the filmmaking process that took place. Part of the problem with PA 3 is that it feels disjointed. The first and second films had a very steady pace and very clear build-ups. This is not the case with the third film, which has the extreme moments/scares occur more frequently. It seems clear that once the shoot wrapped, they got into the editing and simply chose the best bits of the huge amount of footage they’d amassed. This isn’t a deal breaker, but at worst means that the film acts like a clipshow rather than having an organic narrative.

Paranormal Activity 3 isn’t a bad film by a long shot, but it certainly doesn’t compare favourably with the first two. It seems pretty clear that the fourth instalment will hopefully clear up a number of the questions raised here, though I’m hoping it doesn’t get too convoluted à la the Saw franchise. Suffice to say, if you didn’t like the first two films, there’s no point watching this one, but if you’re like me and found them to be fun, tension-filled experiences, then this continues the series admirably but without truly excelling. It’s just a pity that it feels less like a stand-alone film than that which we’ve seen before.

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