Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Starring Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Henry Avres-Brown
Directed by William Eubank
Starring Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Henry Avres-Brown
Directed by William Eubank
2021 was the year that long-dead horror films seemed to find a resurgence, but not the good kind. There was a lot of hype over "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" due to Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson's work on it, but coming after 2017's "Jigsaw," it ended up as a bland addition to the "Saw" franchise and not an imaginative reboot like it seemingly wanted to be. "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin" came out even longer since the "PA's" last installment, 2015's "The Ghost Dimension," and while it follows the tradition of the found footage format, it really has nothing else to do with the previous installments except having its name slapped to the front of it in order to draw in a bigger crowd.
Margot (Emily Bader) just recently learned that her biological mother left her outside a hospital as a baby, and discovered that she belonged to an Amish community. She hopes to learn more about her and her heritage, so she meets her relative Samuel (Henry Avres-Brown) with her boyfriend Chris (Roland Buck III), who's making a documentary of Margot's story. Along with soundman Dale (Dan Lippert), Margot and Chris join Samuel at his Amish community, led by the stern Jacob (Tom Nowicki), and almost immediately things seem off. As Margot investigates, she learns that her mother didn't abandon her, but wanted to save her from a fate worse than death, and it seems that her new family isn't as loving as they seem to be on the outside.
As I said, "Next of Kin" takes the mantle of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise pretty much in name only, as there's nothing in this film that ties in to any of the other installments. Not even the Stan Lee Obliged Cameo (TM) of Katie Featherston makes an appearance. Basically it's more a hodgepodge of "The Blair Witch Project," "The Descent," "Rec," and "Resident Evil" more than "Paranormal Activity," but I figured "The Blair Witch Project's Decent Into Resident Evil's Rec: Next of Kin" would've been too long of a title.
The film follows the generic found footage trope of shaky camerawork and the now-classic fake out, as someone breathing heavily like they just ran the Boston Marathon slowly pans across a dark room before panning back at something leaping at the camera in the hopes of making you gasp in terror, but now you just laugh at the sheer stupidity of it all. It's a shame because William Eubank gave us the amazing horror film "Underwater" last year, but here he just seems to conform to mediocrity resulting in a wholly forgettable outing even if the setting is unique.
This setting is the Amish community that's obviously shrouded in mystery due to the fact that they don't adhere to electricity, and they have very negative reactions at first to being filmed for the documentary. The first sign of problems to come arrives when they warm up to the idea way too quickly, and they act way too friendly to a group of outsiders - something that the Amish community is known not to do. But the setting is also special in the fact that it does away with the ability to get away quickly or call for help, since there's no cell phones readily available. It's also a cool setting, out in the literal middle of nowhere, and especially finding the church that's even more in the middle of nowhere than you think it'd be at.
I guess after thinking about it, the film does follow the "Paranormal Activity" pattern of having nothing happen for three-fourths of the film before the supernatural events amp up to twenty in the final thirty minutes, as Margot, Chris, and Dale struggle to survive the night as they're hunted down by a demonic presence as well as psycho Amish people who want to give birth to the Anti-Christ, or something like that, I really wasn't paying much attention at that point. Maybe they just wanted Wi-Fi connection. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? The answer to the last question is easy - no one.
While trying to resurrect a long-dead franchise, "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin" instead provides very little in the way of scares, offers a generic story, and relies heavily on jump scares to try to thrill audiences - so in a sense, it does sort of belong to the diminishing-return franchise.
The Score: D
Margot (Emily Bader) just recently learned that her biological mother left her outside a hospital as a baby, and discovered that she belonged to an Amish community. She hopes to learn more about her and her heritage, so she meets her relative Samuel (Henry Avres-Brown) with her boyfriend Chris (Roland Buck III), who's making a documentary of Margot's story. Along with soundman Dale (Dan Lippert), Margot and Chris join Samuel at his Amish community, led by the stern Jacob (Tom Nowicki), and almost immediately things seem off. As Margot investigates, she learns that her mother didn't abandon her, but wanted to save her from a fate worse than death, and it seems that her new family isn't as loving as they seem to be on the outside.
As I said, "Next of Kin" takes the mantle of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise pretty much in name only, as there's nothing in this film that ties in to any of the other installments. Not even the Stan Lee Obliged Cameo (TM) of Katie Featherston makes an appearance. Basically it's more a hodgepodge of "The Blair Witch Project," "The Descent," "Rec," and "Resident Evil" more than "Paranormal Activity," but I figured "The Blair Witch Project's Decent Into Resident Evil's Rec: Next of Kin" would've been too long of a title.
The film follows the generic found footage trope of shaky camerawork and the now-classic fake out, as someone breathing heavily like they just ran the Boston Marathon slowly pans across a dark room before panning back at something leaping at the camera in the hopes of making you gasp in terror, but now you just laugh at the sheer stupidity of it all. It's a shame because William Eubank gave us the amazing horror film "Underwater" last year, but here he just seems to conform to mediocrity resulting in a wholly forgettable outing even if the setting is unique.
This setting is the Amish community that's obviously shrouded in mystery due to the fact that they don't adhere to electricity, and they have very negative reactions at first to being filmed for the documentary. The first sign of problems to come arrives when they warm up to the idea way too quickly, and they act way too friendly to a group of outsiders - something that the Amish community is known not to do. But the setting is also special in the fact that it does away with the ability to get away quickly or call for help, since there's no cell phones readily available. It's also a cool setting, out in the literal middle of nowhere, and especially finding the church that's even more in the middle of nowhere than you think it'd be at.
I guess after thinking about it, the film does follow the "Paranormal Activity" pattern of having nothing happen for three-fourths of the film before the supernatural events amp up to twenty in the final thirty minutes, as Margot, Chris, and Dale struggle to survive the night as they're hunted down by a demonic presence as well as psycho Amish people who want to give birth to the Anti-Christ, or something like that, I really wasn't paying much attention at that point. Maybe they just wanted Wi-Fi connection. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? The answer to the last question is easy - no one.
While trying to resurrect a long-dead franchise, "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin" instead provides very little in the way of scares, offers a generic story, and relies heavily on jump scares to try to thrill audiences - so in a sense, it does sort of belong to the diminishing-return franchise.
The Score: D
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