‘Paranormal Activity 4’ a scary boring catastrophe

“Paranormal Activity 4” is a pitiful excuse for the end of a franchise that has too much dead time and not enough scares.
The film begins five years after Katie (Katie Featherston), a previous character of the franchise, disappears with her sister’s child, Robbie, after killing her boyfriend. Katie and Robbie move in next to teenager Alex’s (Kathryn Newton) family, and the terror begins after Alex’s family takes
Robbie in after Katie is hospitalized for undisclosed reasons. With Robbie comes more than just bumps in the night, and Alex’s family and her friend Ben find themselves being terrorized by an evil force.
“Paranormal Activity 4” uses the same tired scares from the previous films.
Like all the other films in the franchise, the fourth and final installment uses cheap scares in every attempt at a scary scene.
Most scary moments are a loud noise or a character being thrown around the room by a demon’s invisible hand. The film also abuses the creepiness of little Robbie to try and produce some scares, but even Robbie’s disturbing dialogue and actions cannot save this film from falling far from being remotely scary.
The acting also follows suit with the previous installments. Each actor’s performance is lackluster and unnatural. Even the most basic situations appear to be difficult for the cast to portray.
Scenes such as Alex and Ben’s Skype conversations come across as awkward and forced.
The film takes its time getting spooky. The first half of the installment is mostly awkward flirtation between Alex and Ben, with Robbie being a creepy little kid.
The climax does not promise much by means of action and scares either with incredibly brief moments of intensity and an ending that comes way too suddenly.
“Paranormal Activity 4” falls far from even slightly scary with a lot of dead time and a little originality.
“Paranormal Activity 4” is rated R for language and some violence/terror.