Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Tired sequel in gory found-footage horror series.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
What's the Story?
In PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: NEXT OF KIN, Margot (Emily Bader) discovers that she has a living family member and decides to make a documentary about meeting him. She enlists Chris (Roland Buck III) to be her cameraperson, and he recruits Dale (Dan Lippert) to record sound. It turns out that Margot's relative, Samuel (Henry Ayers-Brown) is Amish, so the trio heads into the country to stay at Samuel's family home and possibly learn more about Margot's mother and her past. It's not long before creepy things start happening, beginning with noises in the room upstairs and a small girl saying "she's still here." But things are about to get much, much more sinister.
Is It Any Good?
Having little to do with the larger franchise, this tired, unsurprising found-footage horror movie is competently made and has its moments, but the characters are often one step behind viewers. Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin develops some likable characters -- especially the towering goofball Dale -- despite some things being frustratingly underwritten (by Christopher Landon, who wrote or co-wrote 5 of the 7 movies in the Paranormal franchise). Are Margot and Chris romantic partners or friends? (They seem like both.) And no one ever explains how Samuel is related to Margot (is he her uncle?) or how the other characters might be.
With Margot poking her nose into every place on the farm trying to dig up information, the movie ends up taking quite a while to get to the scares. It's even possible to forget for awhile that it's a horror movie. When the spooky stuff does get going, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin doesn't work up much energy. For one thing, the characters seem slow to catch on to the mysterious happenings, pushing further into danger when they should be keeping their guard up and responding to alarm bells. (The whole setup is somewhat obvious, truthfully.) For another, characters are forever carrying their cameras into situations where it would have been better to leave them behind. If anyone ever gets an idea to make an eighth Paranormal Activity film, perhaps that's where the cameras ought to be left.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
Is the movie scary? Why do people sometimes like being scared? Are monsters scarier to you than things that happen in real life? Why, or why not?
What are the rules to a found-footage movie? How does this one compare to others you've seen?
The movie was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. What evidence of COVID is apparent in the movie? How do you think the movie will look in the future?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : September 13, 2022
- Cast : Emily Bader , Roland Buck III , Dan Lippert
- Director : William Eubank
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Paramount+
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Fantasy
- Run time : 98 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : violence and bloody images, and language throughout
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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