The most startling shot in “Paranormal Activity 3” is something even the film’s determined unbelievers would concede to be damnably effective: Suburban San Diego three-story home, 1988, in the middle of the VHS tape era. A homemade surveillance camera attached to an oscillating floor fan scans left, then right, and we see a mother (Lauren Bittner) of two girls (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown) walk out of the kitchen.
She is alone. The kitchen seems to be its usual self, each appliance and bowl and fork and spoon in its place.
A few seconds later she re-enters the same kitchen, just as the video camera pivots to reveal that everything has disappeared. And then
Modest, low-fi horror continues to find a friend in the cheapo but very shrewd “Paranormal Activity” franchise, which consists now of three films designed for single-use, one-time consumption. But you know what? They work. Like its predecessors, the new “found footage” lark builds tension and dread slowly and sticks it to you just when you need something to happen.
Like the whining dolts in “The Blair Witch Project,” the key character with the camera, a wedding videographer played by Christopher Nicholas Smith, finds reasons to film all his own worst experiences with the supernatural and the paranormal and the oogly-boogly. It’s a ridiculous conceit, getting slightly more ridiculous with each film. But I have been entertainingly spooked by the results each time. And since these films played a significant role in killing off (for now) their aesthetic opposite, the vicious-spirited and dreary “Saw” franchise, it’s hard not to feel warmly toward the little ghost stories that could.
In this prequel, we get to know “Toby,” the unseen demonic frenemy of preteen daughter Kristi (Brown). Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman made the recent mystery-documentary “Catfish,” and their weaselly fake-naturalism proves a fine fit for this project.
Paramount’s social-media marketing strategy — Tweeting allowed during the advance screening — has been a work of genius. The films are not works of genius. They are, however, wily reminders of the virtues of restraint when you’re out for a scare.
3 stars (out of four). Fright fest. R. 1 hour, 20 minutes. At area theaters.
