Paranormal Activity 3 2011

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: "Paranormal" reveals itself for what it has become, the "Saw" of found video thrillers. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Joost and Schulman sustain a consistent sense of dread, playing with our own fears of things that go bump in the night. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The filmmakers throw in a few cheesy scares: mom in a monster mask, a baby sitter jumping in front of a camera. But the rest is pretty freaking cool. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Paranormal Activity 3'' has no interest in art. It just wants to give you the willies with a minimum of gore and a maximum of camcorder dread, and it succeeds. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Still, cheap it may be, but it's not particularly graphic, so it's got that going for it. And in any case, scares are scares, even if they are cheap. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This third Paranormal is a prequel that occasionally goes off the rails but also offers more laughs and somewhat more character development than the previous installments. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The Paranormal Activity movies are built on fundamental horror concepts, and those fundamentals still hold. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's not so much a movie as it is a cinematic cardio exam, with directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the guys who made "Catfish," pounding away again and again to see how much your heart can take. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The bottom line, for me, is this: I don't scare easily at horror films (that's one of the reasons I tend to pan them), but I watched Paranormal Activity 3 in a state of high anxiety. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: For better or worse, this is more of the same, if creepier than it was the last time around. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Although not exactly breaking any new ground with its by now all too familiar found-footage format, Paranormal Activity 3 hews to the formula in expertly crafted fashion, mustering up the requisite scares and then some. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Far and away the sharpest, most wildly aware film in the series. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If you haven't seen the first two movies, why are you watching this? And if you have seen the first two movies, why do you need to watch this? Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There are only so many times bodies can be dragged out of frame and tables levitated before the biggest scare of all is the threat of tedium. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The shtick movie "Paranormal Activity 3" is the horror equivalent of vaudeville comedy: a little patter, a little pie in the face, repeat. Read more

Andy Webster, New York Times: It ... brings fake-out jolts and humor into play. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: If the goal is to generate howls of both laughter and terror, Paranormal Activity 3 falls short. It's too by-the-numbers. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Inexplicably, there are people who still haven't had enough of these movies. The first was a nifty novelty. Now the appeal has worn threadbare. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Two movies later, even die-hard supporters are going to find all this stuff dully familiar. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Series creator Oren Peli and his conscripts have managed to do it again, but you have to wonder how far they can continue to push this found-footage angle. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Paranormal Activity 3 earns points for its low-key ability to keep viewers primed over long stretches to expect that something very bad, or even worse, may happen at any moment. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: There's something to be said for giving people what they want, but in genre movieland, that strategy droops into lazy cynicism quicker than you can say Saw 3D. Read more