Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)

April 2, 2022 4:33 PM

Margot, a young woman who was abandoned by her mother as a baby, travels to a secluded Amish community with a documentary film crew seeking answers about her mother and extended family.

Currently streaming in the US on Paramount Plus. Directed by William Eubank (The Signal, Underwater). Written by Christopher Landon (Freaky, Happy Death Day 2 U).

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

Better looking than most of the series, as it's not security cameras/webcams and the like, but a "documentary crew." But it does not deliver the kind of scares the better entries did. It is connected, tenuously to the other films, in that the demon/villain is Asmodeus. As fresh as the setting is, the story is pretty rote.

It's a folding laundry level movie. Neither particularly good nor bad.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:35 PM on April 2, 2022

Thank you, DirtyOldTown. I really enjoyed the earlier Paranormal Activity films which were brilliant. I'll give this one a pass.
posted by SPrintF at 6:14 PM on April 2, 2022

It could have been very good but there is not one aspect of Margot's personality beyond what is in the plot description and the second lead Chris has less to him than that. Dale, the sound guy, is the standard found footage character of the loopy peripheral smartass... and yet, somehow is the most enjoyable version of that archetype ever and generally delightful.

Ending would have been good if I cared about the people more.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:24 PM on April 2, 2022

Huh, I didn't even know there was a newish PA movie out.

> Neither particularly good nor bad.

Landon's work is generally fun and entertaining, whereas Eubank's films are so unwatchable* I promised myself I'd never again watch anything he's made. I imagine those two forces cancel each other out, somewhat.

* tedious, pompous, poorly structured, incomprehensible in a bad way, a total waste of Kristen Stewart etc
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 6:52 PM on April 2, 2022