The 'Paranormal Activity' movies are effective, gimmicky fun

The Paranormal Activity movies are full of jump scares that make you feel embarrassed that they worked on you. Especially in the first film, the filmmakers masterfully mess with a single stationary frame, almost making something akin to a silent horror movie (although the sound design is key).

It's a minimalist wonder, buttressed by some decent naturalistic acting, that by-and-large sells the absurd found footage conceit that least the first three films adheres to.

I recently just watched the first three in a row. There's a fourth and fifth, that somehow I didn't know existed, but these three felt like they worked as a closed loop. They are really effective and entertaining if you watch them this way, for no other reason than the series' creepy mythology and linkage makes a lot more sense and is a lot more satisfying.

It does also, however, expose the seams and flaws in the technique of the people behind these movies, although the third film more than makes up for is shortcomings with some of the best effects and frighteningly staged set pieces of them all.

The shaky hand-held camera thing certainly feels played out -- and since no one over the age of 13 is going to believe what you're watching is some real life snuff film, I do wonder whether this material would work without its hooky gimmick. And I'm not sure it would.

It ultimately is a vague possession story, with shades of what would come later in the far more elegant and attractive Hereditary. And there are some clever bits of information laid out, at least across the first three movies, that make for a tantalizing tale of one particularly screwed up family (where the men seem to always reach a particularly grisly fate, ironic in a genre that has historically invoked its violence on women).

But what really makes these movies work is watching them with an audience. My wife's screams and jumps are far scarier than anything that actually happens on screen (the less said about the chintzy demon facial effects in these movies, the better). And I imagine it was a real hoot to see these movies with audiences in theaters (I was too freaked out by the trailers to bother with these films when they first came out).

Although, as entertaining as it is, by the third film I was able to start predicting where the scares were coming, since these movies have a very consistent exposition to mayhem ratio. It'd be super interesting to see someone take a different approach to this same material (not unlike what's happening with the umpteenth reboot of Halloween).

There is something a little timeless about this kind of movie. Lots of objects make small, sudden movements, pretty much no gore -- it's the kind of scary movie you could probably watch with the whole family, although it may make you want to inspect every door in your house before you go to bed.

It's funny, I'd avoided the sequels after seeing the first film because I figured I'd be too creeped out to sit through them, and now I'm convinced that they're actually perfect movies for people trying to ease their way into watching and appreciating horror. They aren't too terrifying, but they get the job done.