Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

In June 2012, 18-year-old high school graduate Jesse Arista lives with his father, sister, and grandmother in Oxnard, California. He enjoys the summer with his best friend, Hector. In the apartment below lives a mysterious woman named Ana, who everyone believes to be a witch. When Ana is found murdered, Jesse and Hector spot classmate Oscar running from the scene, suggesting he was responsible. The two investigate the apartment where they find black magic items, and VHS tapes and a journal of spells that can “open doorways to unholy lands.”

After Jesse, Hector and their friend Marisol try out a ritual, paranormal occurrences gradually take place in Jesse’s apartment. One night, the trio communicate with an unknown entity through a game. Jesse finds a mysterious bite mark on his arm and also discovers he has superhuman abilities, which is proven when he knocks out two thugs that assault him. He and Hector at first view his abilities as a “gift”. At a party, Jesse takes a girl to Ana’s apartment to have sex and encounters Oscar, who scares Jesse’s girl away, and has black eyes and the same bite mark on his arm. Oscar tells Jesse that it’s only a matter of time before “something inside them” will take over, and they will not harm those they love after killing themselves, before disappearing. When Jesse and Hector search for him outside, Oscar commits suicide by jumping off a building, landing on a car.

The group discovers a secret trapdoor in Ana’s apartment, where they find a witch altar and photos of Jesse, his pregnant mother, Ana, Oscar, and Lois. A strange woman in black enters but leaves after finding nothing. Jesse is lured to the trapdoor one night after hearing his dog Chavo crying for help, but the door slams shut and Jesse sees the ghosts of young Katie and Kristi before being attacked by an unknown force.

Jesse gradually becomes dark, suicidal, and violent as a result, which disturbs Hector and Marisol, who later meet Arturo, Oscar’s criminal brother. Arturo tells them that Oscar was in contact with Ali Rey, who had researched demons after her father Daniel and step-mother Kristi were killed and half-brother kidnapped by a possessed Katie. They meet with Ali in the park, where she tells them that Jesse has been “marked” by a worldwide coven of witches called the “Midwives”, who have been brainwashing women to give up their firstborn sons to create an army of possessed young men. Ali gives an address to where a final ritual is supposed to take place and warns that Jesse will no longer exist if the demon fully consumes him.

Jesse's concerned grandmother Irma visits a botánica and tries to cleanse Jesse, but he telekinetically thrashes the living room. The next morning, Irma is pushed down the stairs by Jesse and taken to the Intensive care unit. While Hector and Marisol drive to the hospital, Jesse ambushes them in the street and attacks Hector, but Marisol knocks him unconscious with a bat. As they are attempting to leave, a van smashes into their car and kidnaps Jesse.

With help from Arturo and his friend Santo, Hector and Marisol go to the address, which turns out to be Lois' house. When they enter the garden, coven members with knives rush in to attack but Arturo shoots them both, then urges Hector and Marisol to run into the house, while he stays alone in self-defense.

The arrive and laying in the doorway is Santo found dead. Marisol disappears, and Arturo is thrown into a window near Hector, having been overpowered and killed by the coven. Later, Marisol is thrown through a glass roof. Hector runs into a figure resembling Ana and flees towards a closet to hide. When he comes out, a possessed Jesse then appears and chases Hector, who runs into a room and shuts the door. Jesse asks a panicked Hector to open the door with a normal voice, but after Hector refuses, Jesse breaks down the door, forcing Hector to go through a strange brown door. The camera blacks out after he enters.

The door he went through takes him back in time to the household of Katie and Micah. Hector enters the living room and sees Katie going downstairs to the kitchen. After unsuccessfully attempting to get her attention, Katie turns around to see Hector and screams for Micah, who assumes Hector is an intruder and tackles him, but Katie violently stabs him to death with a kitchen knife. Terrified, Hector runs away, but gets confronted and lunged at by demonic Jesse, dropping his camera to the ground. In the moment of silence, a witch appears from nowhere, picks up the camera and turns it off.

The film was set to take place in June 2012 but announced in April 2012, and was first teased in the post-credits scene of Paranormal Activity 4, a scene only presented in theaters. Though the film is targeted to the Latino market, most of its dialogue is not in Spanish. Christopher B. Landon, who wrote the screenplay for 2007's Disturbia, as well as the three Paranormal Activity sequels, was announced to write and direct the project, which has been described as a "cousin" or "ese" to the series as opposed to a direct sequel, prequel, or reboot. The film maintains the look of found footage, a style used throughout the Paranormal Activity series.[4]

Filming finished in late July, after producer Jason Blum confirmed that the film was almost finished shooting. This resulted in the film getting its release date pushed from October 25, 2013, to January 3, 2014.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was released on January 3, 2014, in U.S., Mexican, and Canadian theaters.[5] The release date was pushed to January due to its longer and larger production.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was followed by Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, released in 3D on October 23, 2015.

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• Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones at Metacritic
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