Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: After an alleged witch is murdered at an apartment complex, a young man finds himself slowly becoming possessed by a supernatural force.
Review: After watching the trailers for this movie, and knowing that this was intended to be some kind of side-story, I seriously lowered my expectations. Then those pre-screening reviews were saying it was good and that it had an awesome ending so my interest was piqued. I should have known to stick with my gut feeling, and whoever said the ending is awesome is either new to this franchise, a studio shill, and/or an idiot! Not only is the ending so unimaginably stupid, yet predictable somehow, but it almost single-handedly destroys the entire franchise's storyline! I'm going to say it once more, SPOILERS lie ahead, because I can't contain myself much longer. Are you ready for this shit?! (Deep breath) They introduce...FUCKING TIME TRAVEL!!! Time...travel...fucking time travel...ughhhhhh. Why don't we go to space with Jason, Pinhead, and the Leprechaun while we're at it?! Seriously, I'm not even joking--they introduce time travel to this fucking franchise! First we have a demon slowly possessing a woman. Then we have the introduction of a sister that passed the demon on to the first woman. Then we learn the origin of the sisters except it does not fit the continuity established and there are witchies. Then we learn--uhh, not much from part 4 except some shit about the demons and witches. And now we have time traveling demons! Yeah, say "hi" to Marty McFly for me, wouldya?
Should I even continue? I guess I have to carry on--well, if that moronic ending isn't disturbing your zen and you're like, "Ryan, calm the fuck down!" then believe it or not, the movie as a whole is not too bad. Even with the ending, I still somehow liked this film better than part 2, because I simply cannot forgive part 2 not having a single scare or anything until virtually the 45 minute mark! Let's touch on what this film did right while I'm momentarily suppressing my rage. The characters are maybe the most realistic thus far and likable as well; even a lot of the background characters are interesting and the events of the film unfold believably. I want to give my accolades to the actors, because this was the first, or one of the first, acting gigs a lot of these players have performed. Surprisingly, the scares are still coming with some original and creative setups that get rolling fairly early on. We do learn a few new things about the witches, coven, and demons that we hadn't before, but the plot is still moving at a snail's pace; there are also a few cameos from past characters to spice things up but mostly serve as contrivances. For fans that cannot stand the annoying witches and the fucking coven, the writers are listening as we finally see a few of them get blown away! I was about to applaud in the movie theater when the first one gets shot with a shotgun--fucking bitch was running like a maniac with a knife like she's tough. Man, I'd love a shot at these little biotches! The last thing I'll say positively was that there were a few tiny nuances and details that were cool and made the story flow better compared to other entries.
Okay, rage on. Well, obviously the worst aspect to the film was the ending which I will explain now. There is a moment in the film where they are reading this dead witch's journal and it talks about a door to another time, but the place will be unholy. Right there you should be rolling your eyes, because you already know how shit will end. I was dreading the moment, but I was hoping against hope it would tie up some loose end as the continuity is falling to pieces in this franchise with nothing being explained. Where does the Delorean take us to, you may ask, and the answer would be to the end of part one. Yeah, the only film in the franchise with almost all the holes filled, that's where we go to actually create more continuity issues! Good idea. So right before Katie kills Micah at the end of part one, when she's screaming in the dark, it's because she apparently sees one of the characters from this film. This makes no sense because why would Katie proceed to kill Micah at this moment? And none of it matters, because this guy is still killed by the demon from this film! Now we are left wondering what became of these characters and why would possessed Katie not interact with this other demon. Or are we to assume time was actually changed? Oh no...nooooo, please don't tell me they actually changed time with this movie! Don't even fucking tell me part 5 is going to take place in some altered reality?! No, that can't be it, because if they were changing history, why would they be saying this was a spinoff/side-story if it was going to have that significant of an impact on the overall plot? I better be wrong, that's all I can say.
Besides that awful ending, there are still more stupid moments to tackle. Those cameos create more plot problems that will have to be explained. We run into Ali from part 2 who knows way too much about what is going on all of the sudden. She seems to know everything about this coven, their rituals, and how they want these boys as bodies for the demons. How did she come by this knowledge, is she in the coven setting them up, or is it just a contrivance to skip exposition? They now introduce the idea that the witches come for these chosen boys at age 6, 12, and 18 because it's 666. Oh shit! So all that drama with Hunter from the other films was about prepping him for his first ritual. That might make sense except for how much time gets wasted possessing Katie if she is not what is desired and why did they come for Hunter as a baby then?! I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that the only reason why these kids are adopted instead of being controlled by the coven is because the demons need innocent people to feed energy off of in order to perform the rituals since really there is no other explanation. But no matter how I try to rationalize the hints and tidbits of information, so many things don't add up. Why are some characters adopted while others aren't. Why would anyone let the coven perform a ritual on their baby when they appear to gain nothing. The original notion was that Katie and Kristi's mom got wealth, but the main guy here, his mom appeared to gain nada; even the witch that is killed early on was living in squaller. Or since this franchise has implied we should assume a lot of continuity errors can be explained away by "brainwashing" are we supposed to believe all these people are brainwashed and don't remember anything? Oh come on! It's also not clear if we are dealing with the same demon, Toby, or multiple demons. I'm assuming there's many since Toby is either possessing Katie or has passed to Hunter. Plus, I assumed that's why this is a side-story, because the main plot is meant to deal with that demon and the antics that ensue specifically. And what exactly is the goal at hand here? This film shows us that just one demon properly possessing a human is a borderline superhero with all kinds of powers, so who can stop them (besides me)? I feel like the Winchester brothers should have showed up by now...
What to make of this mess? If I knew nothing about the other entries, this would have felt like a cool movie even if a bit like "Chronicle." But knowing how increasingly convoluted this storyline is becoming, this film certainly does not help to alleviate any problems whatsoever. And now we have time travel to contend with. Good lord. The acting is good, feels real, and the characters are funny and interesting to journey alongside. The franchise still manages to invent scares and keeps you thoroughly engaged. A part of me is intrigued by what may come with part five, although another part of me shudders the thought. I would have rated this film much higher if it weren't for the multitude of continuity errors forming, taking the story deeper into a corner, inability to explain why someone would film everything during the movie, and, of course, that damn ending! If you're a big fan of this franchise, nothing will probably stop you at this point especially if you can get over the ending. If you're new to things, you may want to check this one out with an open mind. If you've given up on this franchise, this will solidify your reasons for giving up! I can't believe how much hate part 4 received and yet people are saying this is a step in the right direction? For realzies?! And if I read one more review mention Katie as fat, I'm going to start hitting some people so hard they wake up with their clothes out of style! Katie isn't fat and is sexy as hell.
Notable Moment: When Jesse goes looking for his dog in Anna's basement, there is a dark figure behind him, apparently sees demonic versions of Katie and Kristi as children, and there is a shadow lurking ever closer behind the tarps. I'll give this film credit for pulling this entire scene off quite well.
Final Rating: 5.5/10
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