The sixth and final installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise about Katie and Kristi and demon Tobi. 

• Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
• Originality factor: ★★☆☆☆
• Occult factor: ★★★☆☆☆
• Time travel factor: ★★★☆☆
• How shaky is the camera? Can be shaky at times, when Mike holds the camera. 

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is the final installment of this Paranormal Activity universe. It concludes the story of Katie and Kristi and the cult and the demon Tobi and adds a new gimmick with a special camera. It stars Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill, Olivia Taylor Dudley. Directed by Gregory Plotkin. Written by Jason Pagan, Andrew Deutschman, Adam Robitel. 

Duration: 1h 28m

Plot 

In 2013 Ryan and Emily move to a new house in Santa Rosa with their 6-year-old daughter Leila. It’s almost Christmas and their friend Skyler and Ryan’s brother Mike are staying over. When Ryan and Mike are decorating the house for Christmas they find a box full of old VHS tapes and an old videocamera. On these tapes are a young Katie and Kristi. The camera turns out to be able to film ghosts, because it is altered in some way. When they start watching the tapes, they see a young Katie and Kristi from 1988 with their mother Julie and Dennis to 1992 where they live in the same house but with Grandmother Lois and some cult leader.

Leila starts acting strange and in and around the house also strange things start happening. Leila is even talking to someone she calls Tobi and draws symbols in her room in the shape of a doorway. Ryan decides to do some research about Katie and Kristi to find out who they were and he also installs several cameras around the house, as the old camera. But then the demonic attacks aggravate and even become physical and it wants to take Leila away. 

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

We follow the family through the cameras that survey the house. The special ghost camera is handled by both Ryan and Mike and also set up in Leila’s bedroom at night. The other cameras are viewing the living room, the hallway and also Leila’s bedroom. The normal cameras don’t add much except following the story. The focus is on the old camera that catches ghostly shapes on tape. First it’s positioned in Leila’s bedroom and later in the hallway. The two cameras in Leila’s bedroom give a creepy effect because one camera doesn’t capture anything out of the ordinary while the old camera captures a black liquid substance that manifests next to Leila’s bed. It simulates the effect of what we normally see and especially what we don’t see while it is actually there. That is a creepy idea. The old camera has footage that is a bit gritty, so it can be easily distinguished when we are looking at footage shot from a new normal camera or the old ghost camera. 

Because of this camera we finally get to see Tobi in his demon form. We already got some glimpses of his shape and he already was psychical but invisible. Now we get to see what he looks like. First it’s a cloudy substance of floating particles and later on it becomes a black liquid substance that shapes into a more human shape. His face is distorted and creepy. The camera and the reveal of Tobi is the gimmick of this final installment. The film was also shown in theaters in 3D. 

This way the film is full with special effects and the focus lies on these effects and not really on the story. The apparition of Tobi and his jump scares are the scary effects of the film instead of suspense and the creepy uncanny atmosphere. We already saw that Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) also was more focused on special effects and jump scares instead of suspense. 

Aside from Tobi  there’s now more focus on time travel and dimension travel. Also introduced in Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014). But instead of being used to explain more it raises more questions. It does have some new creepy effects. Especially when they watch the tapes where Kristi is going into a trance and is looking for a girl. She then describes Leila’s room. Later she goes in another trance and she describes Ryan and Mike while they are watching her on the tv, while she is also watching them from 1992. She even says ‘bless you’ when Leila sneezes. That way this film is highly connected to the third film. Even more so because Leila is playing Bloody Mary but backwards, like she is seeing it from the other side of the mirror. In 1988 Katie and Kristi played this game in the bathroom in front of the mirror. It’s a fun little clue. 

Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension adds a new gimmick that can be fun but doesn’t add more creepiness or more insights into the lore of this universe. It can be entertaining and it’s fun to finally see how Tobi looks like. There are some fun shots and ideas but it doesn’t complete the franchise fully. 

SPOILERS:

We learn from the 1992 tapes that Katie and Kristi live in their mother Julie’s house, who was killed by their grandmother Lois. Now they live there with Lois and a strange man. They are being prepared or trained to give Tobi a human body. Kristi has to find children like Leila and Hunter and give birth to Hunter herself. And Katie has to protect this cause and those children. Leila was born on the same day as Hunter and their blood gives life to Tobi. 

After Katie got Hunter back from his adoptive parents, they sent him to 1992 where he shows up on the tapes. The symbols that Leila drew open a portal to 1992 as well. This portal leads to 1992 and Julie’s old house. That house was burnt down shortly after the ritual and the house that Ryan and Emily bought was built at the same spot. They even had a realtor who sold it to them who was called Katie Hubbard, which must have been Katie herself to make sure Leila would go to through the portal. When Leila and Hunter are both together the ritual can begin. 

When things get so bad, they call in the help of Father Todd who performs an exorcism. They trap Tobi inside an occult circle and hen have to throw sheet on him. Also a reference to the third film, where Tobi put on a sheet in the kitchen behind the babysitter’s back. It doesn’t work and Tobi kills Skyler, Mike and Ryan which leaves only Emily who follows Leila through the portal. She finds Leila alive and well but also Tobi who is now human. We only see his legs from the knees down and he kills Emily. 

In short. In 1988 Katie and Kristi were harassed by Tobi the demon with whom Lois had made a pact. Lois killed her own daughter Julie and raised Katie and Kristi with a cult leader in Julie’s house. Lois is part of a big cult called The Midwives, who mark and need first born boys to be hosts for demon possession. Hunter was promised to Tobi. In 1988 Kristi “married” Tobi to seal the pact that her first born boy was promised to Tobi. They trained Kristi who apparently had powers to bring Leila back to 1992 to perform another ritual together with Hunter to give human form to Tobi. After the house burned down the memories of Katie and Kristi were wiped. They were raise by “their mother” and when Kristi gave birth to Hunter she became possessed. Her husband Daniel performed a ritual to transfer the possession to Katie who murdered Micah, Daniel and Kristi and took Hunter. Hunter was adopted, but Katie moved across the street to watch him when he was 6 years old. When she murdered his family they apparently sent him back to 1992 for the ritual. In 2013 they sent Leila back to 1992. The ritual has worked because we see Tobi walking in his human adult form at the end. 

The time travel makes it a bit more complicated. Because when he became human in 1992 he is still in ghostly demon form in 2013. But until Leila went through the portal the ritual  hadn’t happened yet and Tobi guided Leila to draw the symbols to make sure she went to 1992. Probably after Leila went back Tobi ceased to exist in demon form.

Read more about the Paranormal Activity franchise:

• Paranormal Activity (2007) review
• Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) review + explained
• Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) review + explained
• Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) review + explained
• Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) review + explained