Grade: B
Let’s start this review of "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension" with a spoiler alert.
Toby is back.
The infamous “best friend forever” of what seems to be every frail and credulous little girl has returned. This time, Toby is more alive than ever, as the entire plot is centered around him. He befriends seven year old Leila Fleege, played by Ivy George, and assigns her the task of sacrificing her blood in order to complete the ritual to make him human again.
Aside from the usual plot of preying on the innocent, the movie does a few things right. The paranormal movies, as we all know, start off extremely slow. The action is nonexistent until an hour into the movie. This wasn’t the case here. The family is shown, some introductions are made and the drama commences.
Not only is Toby back, but so is the camera trope. Only this time, a state of the art 1988 camera is used that can somehow see supernatural elements. The father, Ryan Fleege, played by Chris J. Murray, uses the camera, found in his garage, along with tapes filmed by the previous home-owner and records the family during Christmas-time while he pieces together the past and present. The movie deserves a round of applause for being the first paranormal movie for the parents to discover what’s happening before the last act. The parents do everything from hiring a priest to trying to take on Toby without help. Of course, this doesn’t work, but the Fleeges really deserve the MVP award for their efforts.
There was one seemingly awkward scene where a huge portal to the past appears out of nowhere that sort of throws off the movie a bit and reminds you that this isn’t real; which is something you don’t want to think after you’ve spent your money on something supposedly based off of true events. But this is minor considering the suspense that keeps you engaged throughout the movie. In comparison to the other films in the series, this one was probably the second best, after “Paranormal Activity 3” which debuted in 2011.
