Paranormal Activity 4
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: October 18, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
15
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreOct 18, 2012
The film is heavily reliant on jump scares, but its best moments are the ones before them, when the tension builds without the benefit of escalating music to queue you in to the approaching shock. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasOct 20, 2012
The mythology has deepened, largely to the negative, and the formula is as rigid as the fixins of a fast-food sandwich-tastes the same in every city. But the effects are eternally reliable. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAndy WebsterOct 20, 2012
Paranormal Activity 4 will please the fans, and that should sustain this low-budget, highly profitable franchise. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenOct 18, 2012
This film's strong suit is that it finally feels contemporary. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanOct 18, 2012
Catfish pair Joost and Ariel Schulman keep the franchise firmly on track with a satisfyingly scary fourth instalment. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiOct 17, 2012
Paranormal Activity 4 may mean more of the same, but in a modern horror landscape too often made up of equal parts of gore and boredom and resigned straight-to-video, it's a chiller designed to be seen in a crowded theater, and that alone makes it superior to its peers. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatthew LeylandOct 16, 2012
Aside from the usual self-slamming doors and flying bodies, there are enough creepy kids and hiding knives to distract from a plot that's increasingly mobile yet running on the spot. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 20, 2012
The ending steals actionably from "The Blair Witch Project," the movie that helped spawn these first-person chillers. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 19, 2012
This is hardly reinventing the wheel, but it is serviceable, if you're looking for a few shivery communal scares. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 18, 2012
There's virtually nothing new in the dull Paranormal Activity 4 except for a modification in the method of documenting the spooky shenanigans. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyAdam MarkovitzOct 18, 2012
PA4 develops the story ever so slightly (not enough to satisfy fans) and delivers a few good scares (not enough to satisfy newbies); mostly, it plays like a overlong prologue for the already-in-the-works PA5. Here's hoping this is just the tension-racking lull before the next big scream. Read full review
40
Village VoiceChuck WilsonOct 20, 2012
Screenwriter Christopher Landon, along with co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, make a truly lame attempt at establishing a supernatural mythology to explain all this, but their real energies go to amping up the jarring sound cues, darting shadows, and last-shot shocker (so goofily weird this time that you'll laugh out loud) that make this franchise a perennial crowd-pleaser. Read full review
40
Time OutBen KenigsbergOct 20, 2012
Apart from a hi-def night-vision gimmick, returning directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman don't take advantage of either upgrade. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 19, 2012
But the real problem behind Paranormal Activity 4 is that its entire raison d'être has gotten old; producer Oren Peli, who directed the first one, even included some gentle digs at the found-footage genre in his superior "Chernobyl Diaries," released earlier this year. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissOct 18, 2012
There's a point at which movies become only merchandise, and the Paranormal franchise may be heading for that nexus, that nadir. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweOct 17, 2012
Fairly mild in tone and riffing -- if not quite ripping -- off a collection of horror classics that includes "The Shining," "Rosemary's Baby" and "Poltergeist," both the franchise's premise and its execution nevertheless remain rudimentary, with the narrative and character backstories representing more of a sketch than a fully realized vision of the supernatural world that Katie inhabits. Read full review
40
VarietyGeoff BerkshireOct 17, 2012
Less reliant on slow-burn suspense and larded with fake-out jump scares, this is the first sequel in the series that fails to advance the overall mythology in any meaningful way. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 19, 2012
Paranormal Activity 4 sadly continues the series' downslide, most drearily with a mid-film twist that enables the filmmakers to go about essentially remaking the second entry. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 20, 2012
They could have called this Paranormal Inactivity. Read full review
25
The PlaylistDrew TaylorOct 20, 2012
Paranormal Activity 4 is listless, dreadful and boring, an almost painfully inert and superficial ghost story that lacks specificity or scares. Time to turn the camera off, guys. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 18, 2012
PA 4's best idea, besides reintroducing the slow-walking, statuesque Katie, is a strange video trick involving lots of little lights filling a darkened room. It's tough to describe, but the cameras, of course, capture a figure the characters can't. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 24, 2012
This is one horror franchise that's burned itself out, and then some – not even the rare shock cuts to nothing much at all will startle anyone over the age of 8. Read full review
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