Some of you may have heard of a little film franchise called ‘Paranormal Activity.’ Oh who am I kidding, the first three films in the series grossed an estimated $600M worldwide so if you haven’t seen or heard of these found footage horror flicks you’ve been living under a rock. Although mainstream audiences ate these movies up and found them to be absolutely terrifying, a lot of hardcore horror fans found them to be too soft. Me? I’m somewhere in the middle, while I never found any of the films to be utterly frightening, I dug the found footage concept (I know it wasn’t the first of its kind but it put a new spin on the method) and I always enjoyed myself in the theater, can’t ask for much more than that can you?

The first film was original, had realistic acting for its even realer characters, and had a few moments that actually frightened me. The second film dragged a bit for me, I thought it was genius to make a sequel that happened in the same time period as the original, but overall it felt like a letdown compared to the first. The third installment was another success in my book, it tried a new spin (prequel/origin story) and once again I found myself scared at certain moments. I also felt that it closed up the series quite well because it answered why the hauntings were happening (for the most part anyway). But alas Hollywood can’t let anything die, especially not films that are super cheap to produce and expected to make bank at the box office.

So like clockwork, ‘Paranormal Activity 4′ will be hitting theaters this year on October 19th. Groaaaannnnn. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on this franchise at all, quite the contrary actually. I really enjoy the Paranormal Activity films, and that’s why I was disappointed when I saw the trailer for the 4th film. It doesn’t look like the filmmakers have tried anything original with this one. Besides the addition of the webcam, this looks like it uses the exact same scares as all the others. And to top it off, it doesn’t look like there is any real connection to the original family here. It gets points for having Katie and Hunter back from the originals, but who is this family being haunted and why should I care? Take a look at the trailer below and see for yourself:

Is it just me or has this series run its course? There’s only so long I can see the same scares and not get bored with it. Obviously I shouldn’t base an entire movie off of one trailer, perhaps the filmmakers are trying to hide the best stuff for the actual theater to not ruin anything now, but I’m not so sure. Either way, this film is bound to make tons of cash at the box office opening weekend so it doesn’t really matter what I think. There will undoubtedly be a ‘Paranormal Activity 5′ in theaters next year, so mark it on your calendars now.

What do you think of the Paranormal Activity franchise Banters?