Films of the week

Frankenweenie in Disney Digital 3D
After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life – with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous. In 3D at select locations.

Paranormal Activity 4
First things first: if you didn’t like any of the other Paranormal Activity movies, go ahead and take two stars off the above rating. These movies are now precision-built, and if you don’t like previous entries in the franchise, there’s not a lot new here to change your mind.

For the first time the story doesn’t solely centre on the two sisters who took centre stage in all of the PA movies that have gone before but on the young teenage couple – Alice (Kathryn Newton) and Ben (Matt Shively) – and Alice’s little brother Wyatt (Aidan Lovekamp). When Alice and Wyatt get new neighbours, some odd things begin to happen around the house, especially when Wyatt quickly becomes best friends with Robbie (Brady Allen) and Robbie’s “imaginary” friend.

The same directors of Paranormal Activity 3 have returned to the helm of this entry, and while they never get around to expanding on the whole story quite as much as they did last time round, this time they do introduce a lot of new ways to scare us. Whereas the first PA just had the static shot in the bedroom, PA2 introduced multiple cameras and PA3 had the ingenious idea of mounting a camera to an oscillating fan. But this time we’ve got webcams, motion sensors, night vision and a talking house alarm (“Front. Door. Open.”), and they’re all used to great effect to scare us senseless.

There are some great references to other horror movies scattered throughout, including a fantastic one to The Shining, and the teenage couple, instead of being shrieking and annoying as teenage couples often tend to be in horror movies, turn out to be the most likeable leads in the series so far. The biggest issue is that the movie feels like its treading water, with no great leaps made in the overall mythology. But it does also feel like it’s the beginning of the end, and an overall sense that Paranormal Activity 5 will be the finale of the series.

No other horror franchise has maintained such a surprisingly high standard of quality scares: it would be wise to end it while they’re still on top.

These films are showing at Dagenham Vue, Dagenham Leisure Park, Cook Rd, Dagenham, Essex RM9 6UQ, telephone 0871-224 0240.