Scary good

While both of “Paranormal Activity 3”’s predecessors were enjoyable films, they had a few issues. The really scary stuff didn’t start until just before the end, so by the time the films had built to an impressively scary crescendo, they were finished.  

The third goes a long way toward getting this right. The scares begin much earlier and occur more frequently, so you spend more of the film scared and less of it staring at uneventful footage, waiting for something subtly creepy to happen.

To be sure, there is still some of this in the beginning of the film, but the resulting lowered expectations make the ensuing flurry of superbly executed scares even more effective.

Like “Paranormal Activity 2,” the latest entry ties into the previous films very effectively, adding to the depth of the series’ story and setting up the inevitable fourth movie perfectly.

While “Paranormal Activity 3” doesn’t end with quite as big a “jump” as the first two, it’s by far the scariest and most enjoyable of the three.