From Poltergeist to The Exorcist, it's easy to tell where the directors pulled inspiration, almost copy-and-pasting classic moments into the found footage aesthetic. For all its merciless suspense, Paranormal Activity 3 falls back on a few too many false alarms ('Gotcha!') and bad payoffs, and offers no real innovations in imagery. But for ingenuity and inventiveness, the original is still tops. Fashioned from a tabletop fan, the device is a perfect metaphor for the franchise itself: cheap, homemade, effective. Joost and Schulman certainly get their money's worth out of the gimmick, milking it for some of their whitest white-knuckle moments. Panning ominously between kitchen and living room, the simple mechanic works like a suspense machine. Probably the single most brilliant technical addition to the Paranormal Activity repertoire is the oscillating camera. Rest assured the Rey family doesn't own a pool, let alone a cleaning robot.

And it goes without saying that the freaky stuff is much more explicitly freaky. With an omnipresent atmosphere of unease, no moment feels entirely safe. Landon, who also wrote the underwhelming Paranormal Activity 2, does a better job this time of pitching the odd changeup. One of the major criticisms leveled against Oren Peli's original was its predictable cycle of daytime exposition and midnight scares. Helmed by Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the flick treads familiar territory, but keeps the audience on its toes. A prequel of sorts, Paranormal Activity 3 rewinds the franchise to 1988, illuminating the origins of the Presence that ran amok in parts one and two. Hence the backlash when Paranormal Activity hit home video: these movies cater to a crowd. Scream for scream, the theater experience is without rival hushed gasps, nervous tittering, and shrieks of surprise are empirical evidence of the films' effectiveness.

Reigning king of the 'Gotcha!' moment, Paranormal Activity is back – and though the premise may have worn thin, (how many compulsive videographers can one extended family have?) its minimalist scare tactics are as effective as ever.

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