![]() While the scares and creepiness are pretty mild compared to the first three films, the movie is nonetheless an improvement over the mostly dull fourth entry with several effectively spooky, haunted-carnival-house moments. Landon, who moves up to director's chair after writing the last three installments, 'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones' is blatantly marketed to Latino audiences, which would suggest they are probably a major reason for the franchise's continued success. As things progress for the worse, another school friend, Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh), and Jesse's awesomely sweet abuelita (Renee Victor) join Hector in uncovering the paranormal mystery behind Jesse's odd behavior. Except that Jesse develops some rather unusual abilities along with going through some troubling hormonal changes, like pretending to be a backup dancer in Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" music video or pulling extremely long nose hairs. Jesse and he apparently share the same dilemma: something about bite marks on their arms, hence the film's title. The plot grows stranger and a bit creepier when the ill-tempered bruja is shot dead and the only suspect is Oscar (Carlos Pratts), a former classmate that suffers from a strange oily-black eye infection. ![]() In 'The Marked Ones,' the two friends fool around with the camera and spy on Anna through the air vent as she performs a bizarre ritual, and they listen intently to the chilling cries and moans coming from the woman's bedroom. The last two installments made reference to some clandestine coven but reserved their involvement until the final moments. This is one of a few twists from the series because the other movies never directly confronted that aspect of the storyline - at least, not as plainly and immediately as the filmmakers do here. Nevertheless, not long after, the boys start growing more curious about the creepy activities of the downstairs neighbor, Anna (Gloria Sandoval), a big angry woman the kids in the apartment complex call a witch. In one of the funnier moments, Jesse and his best friend Hector (Jorge Diaz) record some gang members from across the street and are quickly chased. Soon after, he spends his gift money on the purchase of a digital camera he haggled over at a pawn shop. In fact, the plot is not a direct sequel in the series, although the central premise and the filmmaking style remain essentially the same: someone decides to record meaningless daily activities and miraculously, their lives become interesting due to an unexpected ghostly presence.ĭescribed as more of a cousin - a very distant, never invited to family events cousin when you really think about it - to the franchise, the story follows recent high school graduate Jesse (Andrew Jacobs). ![]() The team behind the ' Paranormal Activity' franchise takes a slight detour from the usual demonic hauntings in the suburbs and pays a visit to the highly superstitious families of the urban city in 'The Marked Ones.' Or rather, it's another found-footage tale within the 'Paranormal Activity' universe meant to placate fans until part five hits theaters later this year, breaking with the terrifying tradition of releasing a new installment every year.
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