Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones 2014

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Provides the familiar cheap thrills but with a salsa tang. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Does anybody really find this crap scary anymore? Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: There's no getting past the nonsense formality of taking that camera everywhere. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Pleasantly disposable 'Paranormal Activity' spinoff invests the found-footage horror franchise with some welcome diversity and humor. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Whereas the other Paranormal films rely on an escalation of terrors, The Marked Ones is characterized by long stretches of mundanity, occasionally interrupted by a cheap shock. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: This fifth in the series further diminishes the promise of the 2007 original, replacing mystery and suspense with predictability and misogyny. Read more

Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly: The leads are appealing but the best scares will be familiar to anyone who has seen the previous films - or, for that matter, the trailer. Read more

Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter: A shift in focus helps revive the low-budget horror series, despite the near-absence of returning cast members. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: What comes next remains to be seen, but "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" feels like a fresh start. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The Latino cast gives the movie a fresh, modern feel, but the underlying formula is becoming unacceptably stale. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The concept is the same, and just as tired as it was when the second, third and fourth sequels to Paranormal Activity's 2009 first installment. Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: There's no escaping that the found-footage phenomenon has gone from fresh and original to just plain annoying. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The real terror of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the horrifying thought that Blair Witch disease rages unabated, 15 years after the outbreak began. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: While it's exciting to see a hit series take on an almost entirely Latino cast as just a matter of course, the new zigs only barely balance out all the familiar zags. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The plot is a confusing, derivative mishmash of half-baked supernatural cliches, and the total absence of characterization makes it hard to care what happens. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's a welcome update, qualifying as the best in the series since the first film captivated and unnerved audiences in 2007. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Landon co-wrote three of the previous entries, though this is his first time directing one, and he doesn't seem to know, or care, about the kinds of questions audiences may want answers to. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Many of the core elements of the earlier movies are retained here, including the increasingly annoying found-footage gimmick. Read more