Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a 2014 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Christopher B. Landon, who wrote the three Paranormal Activity sequels. It was released on January 3, 2014 in US theaters. Overall, the film recieved mostly negative reviews from critics.
Plot[]
The film takes place in June 2012, in Oxanard, California. It begins with Jesse living through the Valedictorian speech at his high school graduation. Directly after the ceremony Jesse is outside with his family and friends, including Dad, Grandma, and best friend Hector. The graduation of Jesse is a pretty big deal because once they get home to their apartment the entire courtyard is filled with family and friends to celebrate the big event. One of Jesse’s best friends, Marisol, shows up late with salsa, and Jesse receives cash from his father as a graduation present. One of the topics of conversation is the apartment at the end of the courtyard that has newspapers taped to all of the windows, obscuring the view inside. Anna, an older woman, lives inside the apartment, and everyone talks about her and rumors that she is a “bruja”, or witch. There are also reports of hearing moans and wails coming from her apartment late at night.
The next morning we meet Jesse's friend, Hector, while he's at work. Jesse arrives to show off the new video cameras he has bought with the money from graduation. We quickly learn that Hector is the friend that Jesse can talk into doing anything when he is convinced to get inside a laundry basket equipped with Go-Pro camera and ride it down the concrete stairs of the apartment complex. Of course he crashes, scraping his knees and elbows along the way. While filming the injuries of Hector and other sights around the complex the boys see Oscar, the valedictorian from Jesse’s graduating class, come out of Anna’s apartment looking spooked and strange – he doesn’t talk to Jesse or Hector, but instead just quickly leaves the complex and runs down the street.
That night Hector is hanging out at Jesse’s house, and they get Irma (Jesse's grandmother) to do a couple of shots of tequila – While talking and hanging out with Irma, they hear some screams, mechanical whirlings and other strange sounds coming from Anna’s apartment, which it’s clear now is right below Jesse’s apartment. They go into one of the bedrooms and realize they can hear the sounds very clearly through a heating vent, and decide to lower the camera down the shaft to see if they can view what’s going on in that apartment through Anna’s vent below. They see a nude woman standing still inside the room. Then Anna appears, also nude and proceeds to paint a circle with a triangle inside it on the woman’s stomach with, what appears to be, blood. After Irma catches the boys and thinks they are watching porn, the boys look back to the monitor that is catching the action and see the faces of two young girls staring through the grate into the camera – they quickly pull the camera up to keep from getting caught and close the vent.
Jesse and Hector decide that they are going to torment the strange neighbor Anna, and talk a little kid into knocking on her door. They then set up some fireworks outside her window in an attempt to torment her further, but it doesn’t light – and suddenly Oscar the valedictorian comes leaping out of Anna’s window and runs away. They soon discover that Anna has been murdered, and that Oscar is the prime suspect. After the activity surrounding the murder and the crime scene ends, Jesse, Hector and Marisol break into Anna’s apartment to have a look around, and find several altars and other scary witch things around. The kids are suddenly confronted by Oscar’s brother Arturo, a tattooed gang banger, who states that Oscar is not responsible for the murders.
While playing with a Simon toy, Jesse, Hector and Marisol notice a strange pattern that gives the appearance that the toy is actually answering Jesse’s questions – a red beep for “no” and a green beep for “yes”. The next morning Jesse wakes up with blood on his sheets and a bite mark on his arm.
Jesse and Hector head to the playground to shoot some hoops, and afterward rummage through a backpack looking for change for the vending machine. Meanwhile, a couple of thugs approach the boys and attempt to mug them for the backpack, kicking and beating on Jesse when he resists. Suddenly both of the thugs go are thrown by Jesse doesn’t, know how he did it. Later, while consulting with the Simon toy, they learn that whatever it is that is answering questions with the toy also exacted the revenge on the thugs. The “super powers” do not stop with winning fights, when Jesse learns that he is unable to fall down – an unseen hand catches his body and rights him whenever he tries to fall backward, whether it’s from a standing position on the floor or on a chair. Jesse also finds that he can inflate an air mattress with one easy breath, even with Hector laying on it.
Feeling invincible, Jesse has Hector join him as he crashes a party going on at a house on the block. There he meets Penelope and takes her back to Anna’s empty apartment for a private place to have sex. When he has to go downstairs to get a condom Penelope starts hearing noises coming from under the floor, and finds a trap door. She opens it and someone (Oscar) tries to grab her from inside. She runs from the room screaming, and Oscar comes out of the hatch and walks into the bedroom. Jesse comes out and chases Oscar down, and Oscar shows him that he too has a bite mark on his arm, and he says that he’s been marked by Anna. He then runs off and while Jesse and Hector are looking for him he crashes into the roof of a nearby car, having hurled himself from a rooftop to his death. Jesse, Hector and Marisol check out the trap door basement and find plastic hanging all over the place, and another alter – this time with pictures of Oscar, Jesse, and Jesse’s family. Jesse’s mom is in one of the pictures, while pregnant with Jesse, standing next to Anna who it now appears used to be a family friend.
Jesse begins acting more and more strangely – sullen and moody, and while in the bathroom finds that he has black hairs in his eyes that he can pull out and throw in the sink. He then hears his little dog barking and follows the sound to Anna’s apartment and down inside the trap door in the floor. He goes down to investigate and encounters some little girls with black eyes(Kate and Kristi as little girls), and some other ghostly figure. The next morning Hector visits Jesse, and Jesse is acting strange. He tells Hector that he isn't his best friend and to leave after embarassing him by turning the camera around on him. During a grocery store visit, Jesse sees a friend of Marisol's talking to her and he becomes angry and violent. He pushes the young man down and when the shop owner confronts him, he harrasses him too. Jesse regrets his actions later, saying he couldn't control his anger.
Jesse, Hector, and Marisol visit Arturo's house, where they check out Oscar's room. His room is filled with newspaper articles about the witch coven as well as children that have gone missing. Ali Rey's number is seen on one wall, and once Jesse gets nervous and leaves, Hector takes the number. Hector and Marisol contact Ali, and they meet up in a park. Ali has researched demons after the events of Paranormal Activity 2 and explains to them that the coven is trying to create possesed young men, who, once they turn 18 are chosen to finally be possesed. Jesse's grandma, Irma, realizes what is happening once Jesse uses his powers to hold his dog up to the ceiling and laughing about it. Hector sees what's going on and gets Jesse to stop. Hector, Marisol and Irma go to a shop where they talk to people to see what they should do. Irma performs a ritual, this only seems to make Jesse sicker.
As Irma passes the egg over his chest, Jesse suddenly grabs the eggs and breaks it. The insides of the egg have turned red as a result of ritual and the room starts the shake, causing all the lights - including the one on the camera - to go out. Hector hits the nightvision and begins looking around the room. When he hears a highpitched humming, he looks to a corner of the room, which appears as if it's being sucked inwards. Jesse suddenly reappears, many pieces of furniture appearing with him. The three flee to another room momentarily, then return out to find Jesse lying in the mess, unaware of what has occured. The next morning Jesse awakes feeling ill, sweating profusely, and Irma sets up a cool bath for him. Jesse dissapears after Irma leaves the room, and Hector finds him outside, looking down and smiling at his grandmother who he apparently pushed down the stairs. Hector runs down stairs to check on Irma and Jesse disappears once more.
Hector and Marisol get in Hector’s car, planning to going to the hospital so they can confront Jesse's father about what has been happening. The car dies in an alley and Jesse is seen in the distance, slowly coming toward the car. He then disappears from sight, but reappears and breaks the side window and pulls Hector out, choking him on the ground. Marisol hits Jesse with a baseball bat and knocks him out. They put him in the car to take him to the hospital because he isn't breathing and his eyes are all black. Before they get very far, however, a truck crashes into the car and disorients Hector and Marisol long enough for the truck passengers take Jesse and drive off. Hector and Marisol go to Arturo's house once more, who decides to go with them, along with his friend Santo, to the ritual house.
The four lurk around an abandoned house, recognizable as Lois's house where all of the witches were briefly seen. Santo sets to trying to pick the lock of the front door. While walking around and investigating the grounds, an improsioned woman is screaming for help. Suddenly women come rushing at Marisol, Hector and Arturo, and he quickly dispatches them with a shotgun. Arturo urges Hector and Marisol to flee while he deals with the members of the Coven. Hector and Marisol flee to the house, only to find Santo has been killed, stabbed multiple times in the back, as he unlocked the door. After they go inside, Hector, notices they are trapped as the house is entirely surrounded by members of the coven. he tells Marisol to wait in the kitchen while he searches the house for an exit strategy. He approaches an empty room that has a ritualistic sign on the floor along with a horse's head in the center. Hearing a faint voice calling his name, Hector apparoches the window, only to see Arturo's dead body hit the glass as something tries to get in. Hector flees, calling for Marisol, but she doesn't answer and runs frantically from room to room, trying to find her. As Hector cotinues to investigate, Marisol's lifeless body suddenly drops through a skylight.
Hector runs away upon seeing a nearby door open, only to be cut off by various members of the Coven who have gotten into the house. He ends up locking himself in a closet for shelter and exits when the coast seems clear. However, he pauses to look in the living room and a sheet flies at him. When it drops, Jesse is standing in the middle of the room, who lets out an inhuman roar and charges Hector, indicating he has been possessed by the demon. Hector runs upstairs and locks himself in a room where he finds a strange-looking door with markings. Jesse tries to convince Hector to let him in, but he doesn't buy it. The possessed Jesse begins breaking down the door, so Hector opens the door and runs inside, causing the camera to glitch.
He ends up in an unfamiliar garage and upon entering the house, it is revealed this is Micah and Katie's house from the original Paranormal Activity. Katie walks downstairs, into the kitchen and retrieves a knife from the drawer, which reveals this is the night Micah was murdered and Katie disappeared. Unfamiliar with this, a frightened Hector approaches Katie attempts to ask her for help, but she turns around and begins screaming for Micah, parallelling the events of the first movie. When Micah rushes downstairs, he spots Hector thinking him to be an intruder and attacks him, but he is in turn attacked by Katie, who begins to stab him to death. Hector runs back toward the garage, but when he turns the corner, the possessed Jesse is standing there. Jesse's face is contorted, eyes blackened and teeth sharpened, as he unleashes a demonic roar, knocking Hector and the camera to the floor, killing him, a old lady then picks up the camera and turns it off.
Cast[]
- Andrew Jacobs as Jesse Arista
- Jorge Diaz as Hector Estrella
- Gabrielle Walsh as Marisol Vargas
- Renee Victor as Irma Arista
- Noemi Gonzalez as Evette Arista
- David Saucedo as Cesar Arista
- Richard Cabral as Arturo Lopez
- Carlos Pratts as Oscar Lopez
- Juan Vasquez as Santo
- Carlos Romeo Arana Figuera as Mauro
- Molly Ephraim as Ali Rey
- Brent Gutierrez as Diego
- Alonso Alvarez as Eber
- Christopher M. Pucket as Cop
- Angelina Morales as Nude Woman
- Eddie Perez and Joey Anaya as Thugs
- Rodrigo Vera as Marcos
- Frank Salinas as Ramon
- Catherine Toribio as Penelope
- Gigi Feshold as Natalia
- Silivia Curiel as Celia
- Hector Luis Bustamanta as Bodega Manager
- Kimberley Ables Jindra and Maralyn Facey as Coven Women
- Meredith Eaton as Covena
- Julian Works as Pablo
- Chloe Csengery as Young Katie
- Jessica Tyler Brown as Young Kristi
- Wallis Barton as Girl in Stables
- Katie Featherson as Adult Katie
- Micah Sloat as Micah Sloat (cameo)
Production[]
Filming was finished in late July, when producer Jason Blum confirmed that it was almost finished shooting. This resulted in the film getting pushed from its original release from October 25, 2013, to January 3, 2014. This was also due to the larger cast and larger/longer production than the other films.
Marketing Campaigns[]
Paranormal Activity: The Marked ones was announced in April 2012 and was teased in Paranormal Activity 4. Paramount screened a short clip after the Paranormal Activity 4's ending credits finished, that showed two friends looking around a Mexican store, who are scared by an old lady talking spanish. The scene was only shown in theaters.
On 17th of October, the official Paranormal Activity YouTube channel uploaded the official Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones trailer, gaining more then 5,3 million views. In November, the official website redesigned and posted two motion posters titled as The Mirror Kid and The Statue Poster. Another official teaser poster was also released that month.