History YMMV / ParanormalActivity

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Katie's "I'm not really evil, but I can be evil" comment at the start of ''2''.

* HarsherInHindsight: Katie's shrieks of terror at the end of the first film are frightening enough. Then came the ending of ''The Marked Ones'' which reveals that [[spoiler:Katie wasn't in control of herself while screaming for Micah, as it originally seemed - it was the demon using Katie to lure Micah downstairs.]]

* NightmareRetardant: Although the movie is quite terrifying, close examination of its premise actually leaves quite a bit of hope for the viewer: Any evidence of [[spoiler:demonic possession]] in your family? No? You're free, go out and enjoy life! [[NightmareFuel Not that it helps much when you're trying to sleep, of course.]]

* SignatureScene: For the first film, either the foot drag scene or the ending.

* UncannyValley: Those possessed by the demon tend to move slowly and stiffly.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Dennis of ''3'', probably for being more competent and likable than Micah and Dan. Also, Ben from [=PA4=].
** Arturo from ''The Marked Ones'' is getting some love from fans for [[spoiler: using a shotgun to kill some witches.]]

* TheScrappy:
** [[AssholeVictim Micah and Daniel]]. Assuming they were ''supposed'' to be likable, that is.
** Robbie in Part 4, due to CreepyChild coming off as {{Narm}}-y and plain annoying.
** Doug and Holly, [[SupernaturalProofFather Alex's parents]], [[CassandraTruth for refusing to listen]] [[NotNowKiddo to a thing their daughter says]].

** Some people can find the hauntings more amusing that creepy. For instance, the demon feels the need to do things play with the lights and drop keys onto the ground. While these events are meant to raise the fears of the victims, playing with the lights just comes across as superfluous since the victims are fast asleep.

* {{Narm}}: While the footage of Robbie climbing into bed with Alex is supposed to be creepy, many people found it more adorable.

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilOldFolks Grandma Lois]] is secretly a cold-blooded {{wi|ckedWitch}}tch and the head of the Midwives coven, that bargained with the invisible demon, [[ItsAllAboutMe in return for personal gain]], to surrender the first male member of the family to the demon, knowing it would pursue her bloodline until a male child is conceived. In the third film, Lois [[OffingTheOffspring orchestrates the death of her own daughter Julie]] when she refuses to have a son and watches Julie's boyfriend's brutal death when the man tries to rescue her granddaughters from her and the demon. Lois then manipulates and erases the memories of the girls to brainwash them into having a male child, leading to her descendant Hunter being taken by the demon to use his blood to successfully create a physical body to wreck havoc in. Fully aware of the pain and suffering that would come with her deal, Lois is a heartless monster willing to sacrifice her entire family for personal {{greed}}.

* CompleteMonster: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Sweet]] [[EvilOldFolks Grandma Lois]] is revealed as the worst the series has to offer in the third entry in the series. All of the horror stemming from the demon plaguing the family [[GreaterScopeVillain can be traced back to her]]. It is revealed that Lois is a {{wi|ckedWitch}}tch and the head of a coven that bargained with the invisible demon, [[ItsAllAboutMe in return for personal gain]], to surrender the first male member of the family to the demon. To that end, Lois allows her daughter, her daughter's boyfriend and two young daughters into her home along with the demon. Lois [[OffingTheOffspring orchestrates the death of her own daughter]] and watches her boyfriend's brutal death when the man tries to rescue the little girls. The film ends with Lois about to conduct a ceremony with the little girls and the demon, fully aware that eventually her great-grandson will be taken by the demon and her granddaughters' lives ruined or ended, all because of Lois’s personal {{greed}}.

** Irma from ''The Marked Ones''. [[spoiler: She loves Jesse and risks her life to try and exorcise the demon from his body, only to have her possessed grandson push her down the stairs for her efforts, resulting in her hospitalisation.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: It doesn't seem to matter how much you grow to love the characters, [[spoiler: They all die in the end because the cult is a God-Mode Sue that's nearly ''impossible to stop''. After five movies with this pattern, are you hoping for an ending where the good guys finally come out on top? Nope, that doesn't happen either.]]

* TheScrappy: [[AssholeVictim Micah and Daniel.]]

* InternetBackdraft: ''The final film'' has garnered this, due to the fact that [[spoiler: it ends everything on a [[DownerEnding rather negative note]] and while it provides a lot of [[TheReveal revelations]] regarding the events of each film, it also left several things [[TheUnreveal unexplained]].]]

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Toby's semi-corporeal form, a tall, vaguely-humanoid mass of smoke and tendrils, is suitably impressive and unsettling.]]

** For the third film, the scene with the bedsheet.

** The first time [[spoiler:Katie]] shows up in ''Paranormal Activity 4'', she's completely in her [[spoiler:demon-controlled blank affect mode]] for ''just'' long enough before acting normal that it becomes this.
* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Toby's semi-corporeal form, as seen in ''The Ghost Dimension'', is suitably impressive and unsettling.]]
* TheWoobie: Ali in ''2''. First her parents don't believe her when scary things begin to happen, [[spoiler: one day her stepmother wakes up acting like a cross between a wolf and a serial killer. Then, oh, things are looking up! No horror for three weeks! Until you come home to find your family brutally murdered.]]

* InternetBackdraft: ''The final film'' has garnered this, due to the fact that [[spoiler: it ends everything on a rather negative note and while it provides a lot of TheReveal regarding the events of each film, it only left more of TheUnreveal. It doesn't help that as usual in [[SarcasmMode glorious PA-Fashion]], the film ends on a DownerEnding note]].

* FanonDiscontinuity: Most these days prefer the ''original'' ending to the first series instead of what was publicly released.

* UncannyValley: The first time [[spoiler:Katie]] shows up in ''Paranormal Activity 4'', she's completely in her [[spoiler:demon-controlled blank affect mode]] for ''just'' long enough before acting normal that it becomes this.

* HellIsThatNoise: The ambient rumbling noise that almost always accompanies the demon.
** This is a large part of what the demon does in the first film. It spends most of the film just fucking around with Katie and Micah until the last 20 minutes or so when the demon decides to go for full-blown NightmareFuel.
** ''AAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGG! MICAH!! '''MICAAAAAHHHHHH!! AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGG--'''''
** Some viewers found [[spoiler: [[NothingIsScarier the cut-off end of the scream and the span of time before the final scene scarier than the scream itself]]]].
** In an early jump scene, the protagonists listen carefully after Katie thinks she hears something. After a few moments of dead silence, there is what can only be described as an extended scream/howl, followed by a massive ''thump''. [[NightmareFuel Bricks were duly shat.]]
** The sequel manages to do this with a ''children's toy.''
** An infamous scene from ''2'': [[spoiler: during the day in the second movie you get about a minute of silence before everything in the kitchen flings open and falls.]]
** Shortly after the above-mentioned kitchen scene, there's the piercingly loud whistle of the kettle.
** Also from ''2'': Hunter's screams of terror.
** Any time the demon is heard making some kind of vocal noise, like growling, roaring or breathing.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The Creator/{{Netflix}} description of ''3'' says it is a sequel instead of a ''prequel'' to the series, and that ''4'' takes place five years after ''3'' instead of ''2''.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The Netflix description of ''3'' says it is a sequel instead of a ''prequel'' to the series, and that ''4'' takes place five years after ''3'' instead of ''2''.

* CompleteMonster: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Sweet]] [[EvilOldFolks Grandma Lois]] is revealed as the worst the series has to offer in the third entry in the series. All of the horror stemming from the demon plaguing the family [[BiggerBad can be traced back to her]]. It is revealed that Lois is a {{wi|ckedWitch}}tch and the head of a coven that bargained with the invisible demon, [[ItsAllAboutMe in return for personal gain]], to surrender the first male member of the family to the demon. To that end, Lois allows her daughter, her daughter's boyfriend and two young daughters into her home along with the demon. Lois [[OffingTheOffspring orchestrates the death of her own daughter]] and watches her boyfriend's brutal death when the man tries to rescue the little girls. The film ends with Lois about to conduct a ceremony with the little girls and the demon, fully aware that eventually her great-grandson will be taken by the demon and her granddaughters' lives ruined or ended, all because of Lois’s personal {{greed}}.

* CompleteMonster: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Sweet]] [[EvilOldFolks Grandma Lois]] is revealed as the worst the series has to offer in the third entry in the series. All of the horror stemming from the demon plaguing the family [[BiggerBad can be traced back to her]]. It is revealed that Lois is a [[WickedWitch witch]] and the head of a coven that bargained with the invisible demon, [[ItsAllAboutMe in return for personal gain]], to surrender the first male member of the family to the demon. To that end, Lois allows her daughter, her daughter's boyfriend and two young daughters into her home along with the demon. Lois [[OffingTheOffspring orchestrates the death of her own daughter]] and watches her boyfriend's brutal death when the man tries to rescue the little girls. The film ends with Lois about to conduct a ceremony with the little girls and the demon, fully aware that eventually her great-grandson will be taken by the demon and her granddaughters' lives ruined or ended, all because of Lois’s personal {{greed}}.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: It doesn't seem to matter how much you grow to love the characters, [[spoiler: They all die in the end because the cult is a GodModeSue that's nearly ''impossible to stop''. After five movies with this pattern, are you hoping for an ending where the good guys finally come out on top? Nope, that doesn't happen either.]]

* GodModeSue: '''The fucking cult'''. As the films go, there seems to be no way of stopping them and they keep growing and growing, by the [[spoiler: the end of ''4'', there's around '''hundreds of them''']]. This is basically the primary cause of the faltering fanbase, who's getting tired of them [[spoiler: constantly winning in every film]] and the resulting DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

** Some viewers found [[spoiler: [[NothingIsScarier the cut-off end of the scream and the span of time before the final scene scarier than the scream itself.]] ]]
** In an early jump scene, the protagonists listen carefully after Katie thinks she hears something. After a few moments of dead silence, there is what can only be described as an extended scream/howl, followed by a massive ''thump''. [[NightmareFuel Bricks were duly shat]].

* TheScrappy: [[AssholeVictim Micah and Daniel]]
** Robbie in Part 4, due to CreepyChild coming off as {{Main/Narm}}-y and plain annoying.

** Katie. Imagine being haunted constantly by a demon [[spoiler: and spending the rest of your life possessed by it, where you have killed several people including your own sister with no control. '''AT ALL''']]
** Alex from ''4''. It wasn't her fault that she and her family [[spoiler: adopted the one boy the demon was after.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: It doesn't seem to matter how much you grow to love the characters, [[spoiler: They all die in the end because the cult is a GodModeSue that's nearly ''impossible to stop'']].

** Any heroic dog in a horror movie is almost contractually obligated to be the most sympathetic character in the movie. Hence, Abbey. [[spoiler: But thankfully she lived.]]
** Dennis in the third film. [[spoiler: He did cared for his stepdaughters and wife and wanted to find out about the demon and save his family. Yet his wife dies in front of him and he is killed by his mother-in-law. All while trying to save his stepdaughters.]]

** Alex from P4. It wasn't her fault that she and her family [[spoiler: adopted the one boy the demon was after.]]

** Dennis in the third film. [[spoiler: He did cared for his stepdaughters and wife and wanted to find out about the demon and save his family. Yet his wife dies in front of him and is killed by his mother-in-law. All while trying to save his stepdaughters.]]

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The Netflix description of ''3'' says it is a sequel instead of a ''prequel'' to the series, and that ''4'' takes place 5 years after ''3'' instead of ''2''.

* GodModeSue: '''The fucking cult'''. As the films go, there seems to be no way of stopping them and they keep growing and growing, by the [[spoiler: the end of ''4'', there's around '''hundreds of them''']]. This is basically the result of the faltering fanbase, getting tired of them [[spoiler: constantly winning in every film]] and results with DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.

* HypeBacklash: Much like ''TheBlairWitchProject'' before it, getting so many reviews dubbing it one of the scariest movies of all time ensures that some people will watch it and end up unimpressed.

** ''The entire franchise'' is this to some people who enjoy the FoundFootageFilms genre, primarly because it's being ''way too'' marketed and the fact the films are becoming less and less atmospheric. ''Paranormal Activity 4'' and ''The Marked Ones'' seemed to be this for a lot of people. This is also a problem due to the DarknessInducedAudienceApathy with growing attached to the characters only for them to be [[spoiler: killed off by the cult, who is basically shown to be ''impossible'' to beat at that]].