New Releases: January 3, 2014

1. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Paramount, 2,500 Theaters, 84 Minutes, Rated R): I just can’t believe this franchise is still going on.

Well, on one hand, it’s fairly obvious why these films are still being made–they are cheap to produce (the four previous films only cost $13 million to make. And that’s the budget for all of them. Combined!) and make tens of millions of dollars at the box office.But from a quality and a storyline perspective, it has been a case of diminishing returns.

Reviews have gotten progressively worse and the found footage gimmick has become strained as the demonic possession angle moved from one woman to one woman and her sister to the sisters as children to the neighbor that the possessed lived next to to a person the possessed USED to live next to. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the victims become gas station attendants that used to pump gas for the possessed,  a person who once shared an elevator with the possessed, and a child in Africa the possessed never met but sponsored for $.50 a day.

Maybe it will be this one where audience gets tired with the gimmick. But with such low risk, the return would have to be very low for it to go away forever.