After the runaway success of Paranormal Activity and its sequel, the franchise has quickly replaced Saw as the annual Halloween screamfest franchise to delight and terrify audiences looking for cheap thrills. While Paranormal Activity 2 raked in plenty of cash and went some way towards expanding the universe in which these characters inhabit, the general consensus was that a third installment was now inevitable, but would have to do something different. The nerve-tingling tension of watching what is ostensibly CCTV does, after all, try everybody’s patience eventually.

For Paranormal Activity 3, hot-shot young directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman have been brought on board. While unfamiliar to local audiences, Joost and Schulman made waves last year with Catfish, an intriguing look at Internet dating that left audiences questioning whether what they had seen was real or part of an elaborate ruse. These credentials seemed perfect for Oren Peli and the Paranormal Activity crew, whose films have succeeded largely by tapping into that same uncertainty and playing with their audience’s sense of trust.

As was the case with part two, Paranormal Activity 3 is also a prequel, sourcing its footage from a box of discarded VHS tapes Katie (Katie Featherston) leaves in her sister Kristi’s basement. Save for a very brief introduction, the film is made up entirely from footage found on these tapes, which capture the increasingly bizarre and terrifying events that happened to Katie and Kristi when they were little girls. Living with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner) and her boyfriend Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith), the girls seem perfectly normal, except that Kristi spends more and more time conversing with Toby, her imaginary friend who lives in their bedroom cupboard. After a few nocturnal disturbances, Dennis – who conveniently is a budding filmmaker with numerous cameras available – sets up surveillance around the house, only to discover some extremely disturbing events are happening while they sleep.

The less known about what happens the better, suffice to say that Joost and Schulman have toned down the tedious waiting and watching element of the previous films and conjured up some incredibly effective scares that are unsettling, haunting and will certainly have you leaping out of your seat more than once. The horror is aided by some great, naturalistic performances, particularly from Jessica Tyler Brown as young Kristi and Smith as Dennis, our likable “hero”. Special mention should also be given to Dustin Ingram – who plays scared better than anyone in any horror movie in recent memory.

Beyond the cheap parlour tricks, however, the further we delve into these characters’ back stories, the more intriguing the mythology becomes, ensuring that Paranormal Activity is a series that will continue to run and run for many years to come. Joost and Schulman have grabbed this beast by the horns and done exactly what was necessary to keep the series fresh – and in doing so have inadvertently made it better than ever.