Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

So Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the fifth installment of the Paranormal Activity series. At first, at least for me, it seemed like this one wasn't at all related to the first four films. It's actually the first spin-off of the series. (Spoilers!)

So the film is set in 2012. Jesse Arista is living in an apartment with his father, sister and grandmother in Oxnard, California. Below them, lives Ana, a woman everyone believed to be a witch. One night, Ana is found murdered and a classmate of Jesse's, named Oscar, is seen fleeing from the scene and is the prime suspect. Jesse, shocked that Oscar could possibly have killed her, investigates the apartment with his best friend Hector. In the apartment, they find tools of black magic, VHS tapes and a spell book/journal filled with spells that open the doorway to "unholy lands". Creepy right?

Okay, so what would you do if you found a book of spells that led to an alternate dimension that is described as "unholy" and probably gonna be filled with all sorts of nasty demons? Would you try out the spell? As much as I love the King of Hell, I wouldn't try a ritual from a weird book found in the apartment of a dead woman. Well, that's what Jesse, Hector and their buddy Marisol did. They did the ritual. Oooh, at first nothing happens, but it always ends bad. Haven't these guys seen any supernatural horror flick? Well, afterwards, weird supernatural events start happening in Jesse's apartment. He finds a bite mark on his arm and starts gaining supernatural abilities. Like seriously. This kid knocks out two thugs (and by knocked out, I mean he threw them without touching them).

So Jesse attends this party, right, and he takes this girl to Ana's apartment to do the do. Okay, let's pause here to talk about how ridiculous this is. I get that he doesn't want to go back to his own apartment, because God knows no teenager wants his grandmother or any other family member walking in on them getting it on, but did he have to go the apartment of a dead woman? Does he not realize how creepy that is? Or how much of a turn-off it is? WELL, I guess we needed the plot, right? Okay, so Jesse encounters Oscar, who has a similar bite mark on his arm and his eyes are black. Like totally black. He tells Jesse that they have to kill themselves so they don't hurt anyone and then he jumps off the building to his death.

Then, the group finds a trapdoor in the apartment. Down there, they discover a witch altar (fun!), photos of Jesse, his pregnant mother, Ana, Oscar and Lois. A woman in black enters, the group hides until she leaves, finding nothing.

One night, Jesse hears his dog, Chavo, crying for help, so he goes down the trapdoor to help him. The door slams shut, and witnesses the ghost/spirits/images of kid Katie and Kristi (it was at this point I realized that The Marked Ones was indeed connected to the first four films) and then he is attacked by a demon. Afterwards, Jesse starts becoming violent, and his personality darkens. Hector and Marisol do what they can to help him, even going to Oscar's criminal brother, Arturo, for information. From him, they learn that Oscar was contacting a girl named Ali Rey, who researched (conveniently, I might add) demons after demon-possessed Katie murdered her father, stepmother and kidnapped her half-brother. After meeting with this girl (who I honestly don't remember at all), they learn that the mysterious bite mark on Jesse's arm was left by a coven of witches known as the "Midwives" (not a clever name, but at least we have a name for these dicks), who brainwash women to give up their first-born sons. They are creating an army. Ali gives them the address of the ritual (how would she know this though?) and after the next bit Hector and Marisol, accompanied by Arturo and his friend Santo go to the address ready to kick some witchy ass.

Meanwhile, Jesse's grandmother is trying to cleanse Jesse, but he destroys the living room and pushes her down the stairs before disappearing. He then ambushes Hector and Marisol, who at this point are driving to the hospital. Marisol knocks him out with a bat, and they try to leave but naturally a van smashes into their car and they take Jesse.

Right, so they head to the address which is actually where Katie and Kristi's mother and her boyfriend were killed. The coven attacks the group, Santo is killed, Hector and Marisol flee into the house and who knows what happened to Arturo (dead probably, or he shows up in Ghost Dimension). Marisol is then thrown through a glass roof, so she's dead as well and Jesse takes Hector back in time, back to when Micah was killed. Katie appears in the kitchen, sees Hector and loses her mind. She starts screaming for Micah but ends up stabbing him to death when he comes down the stairs. Hector tries to run, but Jesse is like nah, cause he's totally possessed. Jesse kills Hector off-screen and a witch stares into the camera and then turns it off.

Okay, I can believe a coven of witches marking a bunch of people and letting demons possess them so that they could have an army of possessed young man. Really. That makes sense. What I can't believe is a demon dude taking another guy back in time, fully connecting all the movies. I can't do it.

It was creepier and better than the other films, in my opinion and you should watch it if you hadn't already. That's all I have to say. Till Next Time!