Paranormal Activity 4

2012 Paramount Pictures/Blumhouse Productions
Directed by: Henry Joost Ariel Schulman; Written by: Christopher Landon
Starring: Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively, Aiden Lovekamp, Brady Allen, Stephen Dunham, Alexondra Lee, and Katie Featherston
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 87 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Teenaged Alex lives a comfortable life with her mom, dad, and brother, Wyatt, in an affluent Nevada neighborhood. Well, mostly comfortable. Her parents relationship seems cold and distant, and this creepy little boy, Robbie, keeps wandering from his house across the street into her yard. One day, Robbie's mom, Katie, has to be hospitalized, and Alex's parents agree to keep Robbie for a few days. Sure enough, as soon as Robbie moves in, weird stuff starts happening, so weird that Alex agrees to let her boyfriend, Ben, use her family's laptops and other devices to constantly record what's going on throughout the house. Unsurprisingly, the cameras capture what can only be described as...paranormal activity...and to make matters worse, as the severity of the activity increases, Robbie's strangeness seems to be rubbing off on Wyatt.
Paranormal Activity 4 settles into the series' opposite of Star Trek "the even ones aren't as good" curse. Despite, or perhaps because of the fact that it returns both the screenwriter and directors from the satisfying third film in the franchise, 4 offers little in the way of new ideas. The film does attempt to bring in laptop cameras as a new innovation. However, outside of the characters obscuring more of the frame when they're talking to the camera (creating some tension that something freaky may be going on out of view directly behind them), this feels little different than the static cameras from the franchise's other films. There's nothing here nearing the fun and scare caliber of the fan-cam from the third film. There's also little in the way of story innovation.
Indeed, it's the same "white upper-middle-class family's house is haunted" premise as the films before it, with few if any surprises. Paranormal Activity 4 feels, in many ways (and no pun intended), by the numbers, not even really adding much to the series' overall mythology. However, there are two reasons to watch this film. 

The first is the movie's lead. There's a reason Kathryn Newton's had the greatest subsequent career of any Paranormal Activity actor. Her front-and-center performance as Alex is magnetic and natural, and she carries this film through its duller moments. She's an engaging presence from her first appearance until her inglorious last. 

The second is, no matter how lazy or repetitive these movies get, the basic premise and filming style of a Paranormal Activity film ensures there will always be some quality scares. In this regard (like a lot of others) 4 is no different. For fans of this series (that includes this writer), this entry is watchably disappointing.