What Happened? Where Will ‘Paranormal Activity 4’ Take Us? Where Have We Been?

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
BEGINS: September 3, 1988 / ENDS: September 15, 1988

Okay, so when I say the film begins in September 1988, I’m talking about the actual story. Yes, the film actually begins March 2005 as Katie is dropping some of the sister’s grandmother’s stuff off including a box of VHS tapes clearly marked 1988 and 1992. The story then jumps to 2006 and the burglary seen in Paranormal Activity 2 where it’s revealed the tapes (and Kristi’s necklace as noted in P2) have been stolen.

The story then back tracks all the way to September 1988 where we meet boyfriend and girlfriend Dennis and Julie and what could be presumed to be an 8-year-old Katie and 5-year-old Kristi. We also meet Julie’s mother Lois who questions Julie, asking her if she plans on having any more children because she “always wanted a big family.” Julie says she doesn’t plan on having any more children, which means the chances of having a newborn son are now gone, and we don’t see grandma very much more until the film’s end.

As the story plays out, Kristi reveals she has what is assumed by the characters to be an imaginary friend. She calls him Toby and when asked by Dennis how old he is, she replies, “Old like grandma,” giving us a hint as to the entity’s age.

The story then plays out as strange things begin happening. Kristi is consistently seen talking to Toby, whom only she can see and at one point Katie is snatched by the demon and dragged into a small closet in the girl’s bedroom. It’s at this point Kristi makes a pact with Toby in order to get him to release her sister. “Okay, I’ll do it,” she says. What exactly she’s going to “do” isn’t immediately known.

However, shortly thereafter both Dennis and Julie are convinced they need to get out of the house, which is when they go to stay at grandma Lois’s house. It is here where a scene involving Kristi dressed in a wedding gown comes up. She’s being dolled up by grandma and Katie to look like a little bride. When asked who the lucky man is she replies, “Toby,” and things don’t let up from that point on.

Eventually, Julie is hung at the top of the stairs from an invisible noose and Dennis is ultimately killed by the grandmother who is revealed to be a member of an ancient coven of witches.

This final scene of the film plays out on September 15, 1988 with grandma walking up the stairs with Kristi and Katie with Kristi looking back and calling for Toby to join them.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 and

THE QUESTION MARKS

Let’s first try and sort all of this out. One thing people have been trouble with Paranormal Activity 3 is that we never see the house burn down as Katie referred to in the first film. The reason for this is that’s because it hasn’t burned down yet. The trailers may have featured material not in the film, but if you look closely, the house burning down happens on September 17 whereas the film ends on September 15, but this leads to another question…

When Micah refers to Katie’s mother in the first film and Katie says to Kristi, “You need to ignore it or you’re going to end up just like mom,” in part two we have to wonder, who are they talking about? We saw the girls’ mother, Julie, die at the end of Paranormal Activity 3.

You also have to wonder why Katie says she remembers a shadowy figure at the foot of her bed when she was 8-years-old and yet, if we are to assume Paranormal Activity 3 takes place during that time, why is it then that Kristi is the one that’s tormented with Katie only getting involved in the film’s latter half?

The way I explain these two potential plot holes is to say that 1) The mother Katie and Micah are referring to is an adoptive mother set up by the grandmother, or potentially a step-mother if the grandmother then handed the two children off to their biological father; and 2) Katie and Kristi have a hard time remembering what happened because they have been brainwashed as is referenced in the third film and the effects of that may have muddled their memories. Either that, or what they are largely remembering is what happened when they were a little older, most likely what will be found on the 1992 tape seen at the beginning of Paranormal Activity 3.

As for what happens after Paranormal Activity 3, my assumption here is that Lois and her coven took the bodies of the two parents back to their house, started it on fire, killed them both and brainwashed the two girls telling them the house burned down before handing them off to their new family, of which they believe to be their original family, forgetting all about Dennis and Julie. But this leaves me with one major question… How and why did the tapes survive?

Why would the grandmother keep those tapes before burning the house down? Especially considering the 1988 tape would implicate her and her coven. There must be some explanation for why these items were saved only to be stolen 17 years later, but I can’t come up with one.

Looking back at the second film, I also wonder what Toby’s ultimate goal was. If he wanted the baby, why didn’t he just take Hunter while possessing Kristi whom we assume he made a pact with when she was 5-years-old instead of playing games? Is it because the fear he provokes must reach a certain level before he can possess someone? I have to imagine we’ll get more answers in Paranormal Activity 4, which I have to assume will involve whatever it is that takes place on that 1992 tape when Katie would just be nearing her 13th birthday as alluded to in the first film.

Of course, Paranormal Activity 4 could also explore whatever it is that happens to Hunter after a possessed Katie snatches him. It could explain how grandma got hooked up with Toby in the first place, especially since young Kristi refers to him as “old like grandma.” Was it grandma that made the pact with the demon? Was it her mother? Is Toby the spiritual body of their grandfather and the deal grandma made was to give up the family’s next first born son in exchange for his spiritual immortality? Did grandma have anything to do with Diane in the ’60s or is that a completely different family?

All of these questions lead to potential fourth, fifth and sixth films, but I think the filmmakers need to be careful not to get too convoluted, especially since this third film opens the franchise up to some serious narrative scrutiny.

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