Synopsis
It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and a suburban family witness strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in.
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Cast
- Katie FeatherstonKatie
- Kathryn NewtonAlex
- Matt ShivelyBen
- Aiden LovekampWyatt
- Brady AllenRobbie
- Stephen DunhamDoug
- Alexondra LeeHolly
- Georgica PettusSarah
- Alisha BoeTara
- Brendon EggertsenDerek
Recommendations
- 70
Movieline
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. - 60
Total Film
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. - 60
Boxoffice Magazine
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. - 60
Empire
Catfish pair Joost and Ariel Schulman keep the franchise firmly on track with a satisfyingly scary fourth instalment. - 60
Los Angeles Times
This film's strong suit is that it finally feels contemporary. - 42
Entertainment Weekly
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. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
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. - 40
Variety
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.
