Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and a suburban family witness strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in. 

Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Writers: Christopher Landon (screenplay), Chad Feehan

Cast:

• Kathryn Newton as Alex Nelson
• Matt Shively as Ben
• Brady Allen as Robbie Featherston
• Aiden Lovekamp as Wyatt Nelson
• Alexondra Lee as Holly Nelson
• Stephen Dunham as Doug Nelson
• Katie Featherston as Katie Featherston

Production:

Paramount Pictures announced on January 2, 2012 that Paranormal Activity 4 was in the works. Information on the characters had been rare, stating that Brady Allen was set to play a character named Robbie. Katie Featherston reprised her role as Katie, who was still possessed from the ending of the first two films. Other cast and characters that appeared in the film had been kept extremely tightly under wraps in order for fans to not know the plot. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman returned to direct the film.

On June 23, 2012, it was confirmed that the fourth film had begun filming. A trailer debuted on August 3 in front of Total Recall. The first theatrical trailer was released for the film on August 1, 2012. The trailer showed that the film is a sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, following the story of possessed Katie and kidnapped Hunter after their disappearance at the end of the second film. The movie also featured a new scare technique, of footage being shown from a laptop in a video chat, that the directors felt would rival the 'fan cam' from the previous movie and that because of it being familiar technology it was "built for a horror movie". The movie also featured the Kinect, a Macbook, smart phones and a Cannon XA10. After Katie is suddenly taken to a hospital, Alex's mom takes Robbie into their home, which leads to strange phenomena occurring inside the house.

 

Plot:

In 2011, Alex (Kathryn Newton) films her younger brother Wyatt's soccer match. At Alex's house, she shows her boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) the treehouse in the garden. Here they discover Robbie, the neighbor's child. Puzzled as to why he is there, she takes him back to his own house across the street. In the early hours of the next morning, Alex hears an ambulance outside at Robbie's house. That day, Robbie turns up at the house after Alex's mom Holly (Alexondra Lee) offered to look after him for a few days, while Robbie's mother is admitted to hospital. Later on, Alex finds Wyatt and Robbie in her treehouse talking to Robbie's invisible friend.

In the evening Wyatt plays multi-player on the Kinect by himself, while Robbie sits on the sofa. Ben asks who Wyatt is playing with and Robbie answers that it's the invisible friend from the tree house. Ben turns the lights off and shows Wyatt the infra-red tracking dots. As Alex, Ben and Wyatt dance in the dark, Robbie sits on the sofa, where the camera detects an unknown figure moving next to him.

The next day Ben reveals to Alex that his computer automatically records their webcam chats, and in the middle of the night while Alex was sleeping, Robbie came in and slept next to her. Baffled by his odd behavior, Ben offers to install laptops around the house to record any other strange occurrences. Over the next couple of days, the computer records strange events around the house, including Robbie waking up in the middle of the night to talk to the TV, and Robbie and Wyatt chasing the silhouette of a small child figure throughout the house. Robbie draws a strange symbol on Wyatt's back, which Alex later finds to be part of an old cult (first appeared in Paranormal Activity 3).

Late one night Alex notices several black cars outside Robbie's house across the street; upon investigating, she discovers several women in black garb entering the house. She is confronted by one of these women and flees the scene. The next day Alex is home alone, and after hearing noises, follows them to the hallway, where the chandelier falls from the ceiling and smashes into the floor, almost striking her. Although her father Doug (Stephen Dunham) blames the light fitters, Alex is suspicious of Robbie.

The following day, Alex sees Robbie and Wyatt entering Robbie's house across the street. Alex follows them to discover that Robbie's mother Katie (Katie Featherston) is actually home, and shows no sign of illness. Wyatt tells Alex that Katie told him he was adopted, like Robbie. Alex questions her parents about Wyatt's real parents but they refuse to say anything. Later that night, Wyatt begins talking to an invisible figure, insisting that his name isn't Hunter. During this conversation a figure approaches him, but is interrupted when Doug enters the room.

One night during Wyatt's bath, Holly leaves the room to answer the phone, leaving Wyatt in the tub. He is violently pulled underwater by an unseen force, where he remains for a long time. He reemerges moments later, but is unnaturally calm and sedate, thereafter referring to himself as Hunter. That night, he appears in Alex's room, where she levitates off the bed while sleeping.

The next day, Holly is alone, and begins to hear strange noises. A possessed Katie enters the house undetected, and heads upstairs. When Holly enters the lounge an unseen entity suddenly picks her up and violently throws her against the walls, before dropping her on the floor. Katie returns to drag her body away. Ben later arrives to discover no one is home. He goes to view the footage in Alex's bedroom but Katie appears and snaps his neck.

Alex and her father arrive, and he thinks he sees Alex's mother with Wyatt walking to Katie's house. As he goes to explore Alex goes home to discover Ben's body. She runs out of the house and over to Katie's house to warn her dad, but witnesses him being dragged violently through the house by the unseen entity. She runs to a bedroom at the far end of the house but can't find his body. As she turns around to head back out Katie appears who storms forwards, demonically screaming to Alex. Alex quickly runs and climbs out of the window where she discovers Wyatt standing outside. She pleads with him to run away with her, but he stands there, blank faced and unmoved, just as numerous blank-faced people appear in Katie's garden. Alex turns the other way only to be attacked by a screaming Katie before the camera cuts out.

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Dracula, who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter. 

 Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Writers: Peter Baynham (screenplay), Robert Smigel (screenplay)

Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Andy Samberg

Cast:

• Adam Sandler as Dracula, the Hotel Transylvania owner, and Mavis' over-protective father.
• Selena Gomez as Mavis, Dracula's 118 year old "teenage" daughter.
• Andy Samberg as Jonathan/Jonny/Jonny-stein, a 21-year-old regular guy who stumbled onto Hotel Transylvania.
• Kevin James as Frank/Frankenstein, the lovable fire-hating monster.
• Cee Lo Green as Murray, an obese mummy
• Steve Buscemi as Wayne, a werewolf
• Molly Shannon as Wanda, a werewolf and Wayne's pregnant wife
• David Spade as Griffin the Invisible Man
• Fran Drescher as Eunice, Frankenstein's wife
• Jon Lovitz as Quasimodo Wilson, the former Hunchback of Notre-Dame who now works as a gourmet chef that desires to make a dish where humans are the main ingredients. He is always accompanied by his pet rat Esmeralda who is known to sniff out any humans.
• Luenell as Mavis' Shrunken Head
• Chris Parnell as Fly
• Brian George as Suit of Armor, a living suit of armor that works as the head of the Suit of Armors that make up the Hotel's security guards.
• Brian Stack as Pilot
• Jackie Sandler as Martha, Dracula's wife and Mavis' mother who was killed by humans while Mavis was still young.
• Sadie Sandler as Young Mavis, Winnie
• Rob Riggle as Skeleton Husband
• Paul Brittain as Zombie
• Robert Smigel as Fake Dracula, Marty
• Jonny Solomon as Gremlin Man
• Jim Wise as Shrunken Head
• Brian McCann as Hairy Monster
• James C.J. Williams as Foreman

Hydra heads voiced by Paul Brittain, Craig Kellman, Tom Kenny, Brian McCann, Jonny Solomon, and Jim Wise.

Production: 

Hotel Transylvania has been in development since 2006, when Anthony Stacchi and David Feiss were set to direct the film. In 2008, Jill Culton took over the directing position, and around 2010, Chris Jenkin, followed by Todd Wilderman. In 2011, Genndy Tartakovsky took over as the sixth director to direct his feature directorial debut.
In less than a year, Tartakovsky rewrote the script and reimagined the film to follow the energy, organic-ness and exaggeration of the 2D animation, particularly of the Tex Avery's cartoons. "I took all the aesthetics I like from 2-D and applied them here," Tartakovsky said. "I don't want to do animation to mimic reality. I want to push reality" "I wanted to have an imprint so you'd go, 'Well, only Genndy can make this.' It's hard, especially with CG, but I feel there's a lot of moments that feel that they're very me, so hopefully it'll feel different enough that it has a signature to it.
In November 2011, it was announced that Miley Cyrus would voice Mavis, Dracula's teenage daughter, but in February 2012, Cyrus left the film . It was later announced that Selena Gomez would replace Cyrus.

Plot:


Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is the owner and creator of Hotel Transylvania, a five-star resort where the world's monsters can be safe from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters like Frankenstein's Monster (Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), Bigfoot, Steve the Blob, and other monsters to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez). However, Mavis prefers to explore the outside world with her father's permission, but the village he directs her to is actually an elaborate deception to convince her of the threat of humans enough to coax her back.
However, this charade inadvertently attracts the attention of an ordinary young traveler named Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg) who was exploring the surrounding forest and he follows the staff to the hotel. Once Jonathan enters the hotel, Dracula frantically attempts to hide him from the patrons such as disguising him as a Flesh Golem named Johhny-stein with the later hasty cover story of being a relative of one of Frank's body parts. Eventually, Jonathan is discovered by Mavis and company, forcing Dracula to claim he is going to arrange Mavis' birthday party with a young perspective. In doing so, Jonathan manages to liven up the staid activities at the hotel, charming everyone, especially Mavis. Eventually, even Dracula begins to like the human taking him into his confidence about his family's traumatic past after the vampire notices the young man knows something about them in a respectful manner.
Unfortunately, Chef Quasimodo Wilson (Jon Lovitz) realizes Jonathan is human and captures him to cook him, forcing Dracula to directly intervene by magically paralyzing the chef. Eventually, the birthday party happens and it is a raucous success until Dracula overreacts to Mavis and Jonathan's innocent kiss. Dracula, in his ranting, lets it slip that he tricked Mavis at the fake village and Mavis is outraged at being manipulated by her own father. Things get worse when Chef Quasimodo breaks out of the spell and interrupts the party and reveals Jonathan's true nature. Even as the clientele are revolted, Mavis still accepts and expresses her desire to be with Jonathan even though he is human. For his part, Jonathan feels obliged to reject Mavis for her father's sake and leaves the hotel. Afterward, Dracula realizes that in his efforts to protect Mavis, he has broken her heart and now she tearfully wants to stay at the hotel forever.

Wishing to undo his mistake, Dracula persuades his friends to help him find Jonathan and even risks his destruction by venturing out in the daylight to do so. Learning that Jonathan is about to board a flight out of Transylvania Airport shortly, they race on and enter a town en route. At that town, Dracula and company are stunned to see the humans celebrating a monster holiday with many humans costumed as the monsters in tribute. To clear a path, Frankenstein tries to scare them, but finds the humans are cheerfully welcoming them instead and even provide a shaded route through the town for Dracula to proceed at maximum speed.
However, Dracula finds that he is too late with Jonathan's plane taking off. With no alternative, Dracula desperately flies after it in broad daylight despite being hurt by the sun. With much effort, Dracula manages to reach the plane and resorts to mind-controlling one of the pilots (Brian Stack) to apologize and tell Jonathan that he wants him to return to be with his daughter. Jonathan accepts Dracula's apology and Dracula manipulates the plane back to the airport.
Later, Dracula returns Jonathan to Mavis, who tells her that she's his 'zing' and the reason why he had to reject her. Dracula gives his blessing to their relationship, Jonathan and Mavis kiss and the hotel has another party to celebrate his daughter's liberating coming of age before Jonathan and Mavis set off on their travels.
The film ends with Dracula and his friends being shown in traditional animation (in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky's cartoons) during the credits.

Sinister (2012)

Found footage helps a true-crime novelist realize how and why a family was murdered in his new home, though his discoveries put his entire family in the path of a supernatural entity. 

Director: Scott Derrickson

Writers: Scott Derrickson (screenplay), C. Robert Cargill

Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone 

Cast:

• Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt
• Juliet Rylance as Tracy Oswalt
• Clare Foley as Ashley Oswalt
• Michael Hall D'Addario as Trevor Oswalt
• Fred Thompson as Sheriff
• James Ransone as Deputy
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Professor Jonas

Production:

Shooting for Sinister began in fall of 2011, with Ethan Hawke and Juliet Rylance signing on to star in the film

Plot:

The film opens on Super 8 footage where a family of four are standing under a tree with bags over their heads and nooses around their necks. An unseen figure saws a tree limb acting as a counterweight with a rake, and cuts it off, sending the family up, strangling them.
Months later, true-crime novelist Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves into the same house as the murdered family with his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), and their two children Ashley (Clare Foley) and Trevor (Michael Hall D'Addario). Ellison uses the murders as the basis for his new book. Supposedly, there were five members in the family, and one of the children went missing after the murders.
Ellison finds a box in the attic, which contains a projector and several reels of Super 8 footage that are each labeled as if innocent home movies. He watches the films, all depicting families murdered in various ways, including having their throats slit in bed (Sleepy Time), an arson (BBQ), being drowned in their pool (Pool Party), being run over by a lawn mower (Lawn Work) and the hanging that opened the movie (Hanging Out). The drowning one proves especially disturbing for him, as he sees a dark figure with a demonic face. Upon seeing this figure, strange things begin happening around the house. Ellison continues to observe the films, and discovers strange things in them, such as a strange symbol painted near the murders, and the demonic figure, which begins to show up in every film.
He calls a deputy (James Ransone) to help him find the location of these murders. After going through the images, the deputy refers him to a religion college professor, Jonas (Vincent D'Onofrio), to decipher the symbol in the films. Jonas tells Ellison that the symbol is that of a Pagan deity named Bughuul, who was known as an eater of children's souls, killing the families of the child and then taking the child to his own netherworld. One night, Ellison hears the film projector running and goes up to the attic. He finds five children (all of whom were the missing from each family after they were murdered) watching one of the films. When Bughuul suddenly appears in front of him, Ellison falls from the attic. Having had enough, he burns the projector and the film and moves out with his family. Upon returning to their old house, he goes into the attic and finds the box containing the projector and film, completely unharmed. However, there is a new item inside: an envelope with "extended endings." Within that, Ellison finds that after each murder took place, the missing child would come onscreen, revealing them to be the murderers, and then disappear.
Ellison again chats with Professor Jonas, who sends him scans of rare historical drawings of the mysterious symbol and explains that Bughuul would supposedly appear in the images, which acted as portals between his realm and the mortal realm.
Shortly after, the deputy, whose repeated calls Ellison had been ignoring all day, calls again and this time Ellison picks up. The deputy informs him that he has discovered the link between the murders: each family had last lived in the house where the previous murder had taken place. By moving out of the house, the deputy continues, he has put himself and his family in place to continue the pattern. Ellison begins feeling light-headed. He looks in his empty coffee cup and finds a mysterious liquid left behind, then notices the note that was under his cup from his daughter and loses consciousness.
Upon waking, he finds himself, his wife and son bound and gagged. Ashley walks in, carrying an axe and a Super 8 camera. She then documents the grisly murders of her father, mother, and brother, and paints the walls in their blood, with several childish images such as unicorns, cats and dogs . She then goes to the projector and plays the film she just took, revealing the children in the hallway. Upon Bughuul's appearance, the children run away. Bughuul picks up Ashley and walks into the film with her.
The final shot shows the box of film in the attic of the Oswalt house, this time with a new canister that reads "House painting '12".

The Possession 2012

A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

Director: Ole Bornedal 

Writers: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White

Cast

• Natasha Calis as Em Brenek
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Clyde Brenek
• Kyra Sedgwick as Stephanie Brenek
• Madison Davenport as Hannah Brenek
• Grant Show as Brett
• Matisyahu as Tzadok
• Jay Brazeau as Professor McMannis
• Brenda Crichlow as Miss Shandy
• Anna Hagan as Eleanor
• Ella Wade as the voice of Dybbuk

Plot

The film opens with an old woman trying to open a strange box. She turns on old classic music and grabs holy water and a hammer. Before she is able to destroy the box, she is thrown violently around the room by an unseen force. When her son enters, she is unconscious on the floor.

Next, the audience is introduced to newly divorced couple Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Stephanie Brenek (Kyra Sedgwick). They have two children, Em (Natasha Calis) and Hannah (Madison Davenport). Clyde introduces his daughters to his new house.

Clyde and his daughters shop at a yard sale, where Em becomes intrigued by an old box which has Hebrew inscriptions engraved on it. Clyde agrees to buy the box for her. When Em walks around the house carrying the box, she discovers the old woman lying in bed while in a full body cast. Upon seeing the box, the old lady slams her hand against the window, screaming, until her nurse closes the window blinds.

Em asks her father to open the box, but he is unable to and concludes it is not meant to be opened. Em keeps the box in her bedroom and that night, begins to hear whispering coming from inside the box. She is successfully able to open the it, and inside it finds a tooth, a corpse of a moth, and a ring, which she begins to wear. Em then falls asleep with the box.

After coming home the next day, Clyde, Hannah and Em hear an animalistic noise in their kitchen and discover food all over the floor. When the intruder escapes through their pet flap, Clyde assumes it was a raccoon.

Em becomes solitary and spends her spare time staring at the box. Her behavior grows increasingly sinister, to the point where she stabs her father in the hand with a fork. One night while Em is in the bathroom, she starts to gag. She uses a flashlight and points it into her mouth. After a few seconds, a hand is seen crawling up from the back of her mouth. Em is startled, but she doesn't say anything and goes back to bed. The house later becomes infested with moths, mainly clustered in Em's room.

The next morning, Brett prepares to take Em to the psychologist. However, when Em stares blankly at Brett, his mouth begins gushing blood and his teeth begin falling out, causing him to drive away frantically. Em then has a seizure on the front lawn and is discovered by Hannah and Stephanie, who call 9-1-1. Em is taken to the hospital for an MRI. During the procedure, the lights begin to flicker, and the machinery begins to malfunction, and Stephanie and Hannah are horrified when they sees the dybbuk's face in the images, next to Em's heart.

Stephanie then realizes that Em is possessed. Clyde and Tzadok join the rest of the family at the hospital and attempt to conduct an exorcism in the physical therapy room. Before they begin, Tzadok requires everyone present to put a valuable item of his or hers into the box. The exorcism begins, but Em breaks free from her family and attacks Tzadok. Em escapes to the morgue with Clyde in close pursuit. Em attacks Clyde, and he survives but he is now possessed by the dybbuk. Tzadok performs an exorcism which is successfull the dybbuk crawls out of Clyde and back into the box.

The family is reunited, with Clyde and Stephanie's love rekindled. Tzadok drives away with the box in Clyde's vehicle. Minutes after telling Clyde he will ask his rabbi father what to do with the box, his car is suddenly hit by a truck, apparently killing him.

As the camera pulls out from the car crash, the box is seen, having landed several feet from the wreckage. The dybbuk is heard whispering from inside the box, unharmed.