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Reviews
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
Disappointingly par for the course
Franchise fatigue has definitely set in with this tedious fourth instalment.
After taking things off on a slightly different tangent with the previous film, the same writing/directing duo instead plump for the same old, same old - lots of nothing happening before LOUD NOISES! freak out the teenage girls in the audience and the less discerning horror moviegoers.
And, despite some spirited (ha!) performances, the lack of any real plot development leaves the mythology treading water and the series as a whole rather confused.
Ultimately, PA 4 is a step back and the textbook definition of 'diminished return'.
Un gatto nel cervello (1990)
Gallons of gore as famed director loses his marbles.
Horror film director Lucio Fulci (played by, hey, Lucio Fulci!) starts to mentally unravel when his mind starts to blur the boundary between what's real and what's fantasy. So he goes to a shrink who - wouldn't you just know it?! - happens to be a crazed loon who carves people up based upon the imagery in Fulci's splatter films... Doh!
The meta concept is a good one and there is plenty of gratuitous nudity and bucket-loads of OTT blood and guts (as par for the course from Italy's premier Godfather of Gore), but the film is undone by too many moments of random weirdness, spotty editing and shoddy plotting that, ultimately, renders the movie just as frustratingly confused as our protagonist.
And don't get me started on the outrageously flat ending, with the mystery being wrapped up OFF SCREEN and explained to us by a secondary character!