Chronicle (2012)

Faux found-footage films are dead dull thanks to the “Paranormal Activity” quadrilogy. The low-budget “Chronicle” seeks to break the rut, and for the most-part, excels smashingly. Much is smashed in this 90-minute thriller after three high school boys stumble upon a cavern and quite foolishly (as teen boys are prone to do) touch a glowing, pulsing … something. Meteor? We don’t know, but the object gives the trio telekinetic powers. In sci-fi lore, newly powered teens must fight crime. Not here. They turn merry pranksters and play football 13,000 feet up. Then one of three -- bullied, beaten, and angry Andrew (Dane DeHaan of “Lawless”) -- goes mad and his rampage in downtown Seattle is so thrillingly of-the-moment TV news “real,” the sight is horrifying and exhilarating, thanks to director Josh Trank. But the teenage oh-so-exact shot “footage” and the constant meta-raised-eyebrows from the other characters halts the momentum, and I think, get on with the story. Stop the gimmick. That said, Track’s thriller near blows the superhero genre out of the water with a fraction of an “Amazing Spider-Man” budget. B+

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

The most redundant horror franchise ever, “Paranormal Activity 3” takes its digital found-footage shtick back in time to the days of VHS tapes. Here, we follow the adult sisters from the first two films (Sprague Grayden and Katie Featherston) when they were children (Jessica Tyler Brown  and Chloe Csengery), still in San Diego, still in the same kind of yuppie split-level house, still stupid as dry paint, and still haunted by unseen ghosts. “PA3” would top “Rosemary’s Baby” if repetition were frightening. But this crap is painfully laughable. Yeah, some scares are found in watching children dragged and tossed by unseen forces. Such acts play on any adult concern for a child. Duh. But here’s the real mind fuck: As the girls play, dress, and sleep in their bedroom, they are filmed 24/7 by their dip-shit mother’s live-in video-camera-obsessed boyfriend (Chris Smith). Dude then watches the bedroom videos with his male best pal in the garage. Um, ghost-hunting pedophiles anyone? That the girls grow up to marry equally camera-obsessed men may not equal paranormal activity, but it sure is whacked sexual activity. Awkward, anyone? D+