Being teenage boys, they're far too intrigued by the boobs on display to fret over the obvious occult ritual taking place, but when Anna is subsequently murdered, they decide to attempt some amateur late-night sleuthing, with predictably unpleasant results. The first complication comes from Jesse's elderly downstairs neighbor, Anna (Gloria Sandoval), whose reclusive behavior is strange enough for Hector to postulate that "maybe the bitch is a bruja." The two attempt to spy on her by lowering a camera down through a ventilation shaft, where they witness Anna scrawling arcane symbols on the belly of a nude younger woman. Fortunately, Jacobs and Diaz boast an easy "Beavis and Butt-head"-esque chemistry throughout, making for pleasant company as the audience waits for the inevitable horrors to befall them. Seemingly possessing no greater postgrad ambitions than milling around and attempting "Jackass" stunts with their omnipresent video camera, Jesse and Hector harass Jesse's abuela (Renee Victor), smoke pot, play basketball, occasionally run afoul of some local gangsters, draw penises on one another's faces, and generally break each other's balls for a decent chunk of the film. Set in gritty Oxnard, Calif., the film boasts an almost entirely Latino cast of characters - a welcome gesture toward a huge filmgoing demographic that rarely gets to see itself onscreen - while smart casting and production design help capture the flavor of the environs with only moderate deployment of cultural stereotypes. Kicking off with a high-school graduation, "The Marked Ones" centers on likably lunkheaded teenage buddies Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz), as well as Jesse's tag-along relative Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). Infrequent use of profanity, cursing, and vulgar expressions.It would be a wild exaggeration to suggest that "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" breathes new life into the increasingly fumes-fueled found-footage horror subgenre, but it certainly represents a shot in the arm for this series after 2012's poorly regarded "Paranormal Activity 4."įunctioning more as a mythology-expanding spinoff than a proper sequel, this fifth installment (the first directed by longtime series writer Christopher Landon) smartly switches the setting away from airy suburbs to overcrowded working-class apartments, and introduces a winning sense of humor that almost compensates for its relentless reliance on every terror trope in the book.Īt this point, the conventions and limitations of the found-footage horror film are almost as well-worn and cliched as those of horror flicks at large: "Put down the camera, stupid!" has now probably been shouted at just as many screens as "Don't go down into the basement!" (Look for "Tilt your viewfinder 20 degrees to the left!" to finally supplant "Look out behind you!" within the present decade.)Īppropriately, the hapless heroes of "The Marked Ones" never put down the camera even as they venture into dark basements, or struggle to start a stalled car, or split up in the middle of a haunted mansion - and it's to the credit of the film's primary cast that these bits of genre-appropriate stupidity generate more laughs than groans. Nudity(depicting breasts, buttocks and pubic region) in a non-sexual context.Īpproximately 290 instances of coarse language including: Scenes containing some grotesque images. Portrayals of fighting, beating, shooting and suicide, with some blood and little detail. Frightening depictions of supernatural beings and unexplained phenomena (sometimes involving animals) with some blood and detail shown. This additional information about the movie’s content is taken from the notes of various Canadian Film Classification boards: Why is Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones rated R? Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is rated R by the MPAA for pervasive language, some violence, graphic nudity and some drug use. The information below is a summary based on data gathered from government and industry sponsored film classification agencies in various global regions. Please Note: We have not viewed this movie.
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