This Week at the Movies

Despite a few genuinely frightening sequences in “Paranormal Activity 3,” the found footage horror series is showing signs of strain.

The first film, which was released two years ago, took a low budget, “Blair Witch”-style approach to a haunted house story and helped to reboot a horror sub-genre.

But two years and two sequels later, the series has followed in the footsteps of “Saw” – a sequel is released every Halloween that is filled with gratuitous back-story development. The more the filmmakers attempt to explain “Paranormal,” the less sense it makes.

This third film is set in 1988, when sisters Katie and Kristi (the heroines from the first two pictures) are children, and is primarily shot on videotape.

The girls live with their mother and stepfather, a wedding photographer, in a gigantic house that turns out to be haunted by Kristi’s imaginary friend, whom she refers to as “Toby.”

There are some creepy sequences – something roams the house under a sheet, a girl is lifted in the air by her hair and people are dragged across floors by an unseen presence.

But the film’s setup is similar to its predecessors: characters set up cameras around the house and allow the audience to wait and wait for something to occur within the frame. This process allows for scenes both unsettling and tedious.

“Paranormal Activity 3” is occasionally effective, but not enough to inspire me to sit through a fourth entry in the series. Enough already.

“Martha Marcy May Marlene” is equally as creepy, but significantly better. The movie, which was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is an eerie thriller about a paranoid young woman (Elizabeth Olsen, sister of Mary Kate and Ashley, in a surprise breakthrough performance) who has recently fled a Catskills-based cult to hide out with her sister in Connecticut.

The film’s structure plays like a fragmented fever dream that cuts back and forth between Martha’s (Olsen) year with the cult, which is led by a sinister John Hawkes, and extended stay with her concerned and frustrated sister (Sarah Paulson).

The picture’s style is often disorienting, namely because the story does not have a reliable narrator – Martha is possibly crazy and her sister is completely unaware of the cult.

If the film has a flaw, it is the combination of its being vague on detail, such as how Martha became involved in the cult, and its abrupt ending. A film can skimp on certain details and still work, while an open ending can often enhance a story. In this case, the combination slightly decreases the film’s impact.

That being said, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” still manages to create an unsettling experience with its haunting performances (especially Olsen and Hawkes, whose character appears to have been inspired by Charles Manson), moody photography and ability to create a creeping sense of dread. The film’s director, Sean Durkin, is surely a talent to watch.

Finnish master Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre,” a Cannes Film Festival favorite, is this week’s most pleasant surprise.

The picture combines the director’s trademark deadpan style and creative use of color with a timely story about immigration. As critics have pointed out, the movie does not aim for realism, but rather exists in a perfect world where people make conscientious decisions.

At the beginning of the movie, Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms, a Kaurismaki favorite) and his wife, Arletty (Kati Outinen) – both of whose names reference figures out of classic French cinema - live a simple existence in the titular port city.

One day, Arletty finds out that she has cancer and checks herself into the hospital, all the while downplaying the severity of the disease to her husband, who was once an artist but is now a shoe shiner.

Kaurismaki introduces us to several of Le Havre’s other denizens – a baker, a generous fruit stand owner, a tavern’s proprietor, a group of barflies and a nosy neighbor (Jean-Pierre Leaud, who starred in many of Francois Truffaut’s early films).

One day, a large shipping container arrives on the port’s docks. Police pry it open and arrest a group of immigrants from Gabon. But a young boy named Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) makes a run for it and stumbles upon Marcel, who decides to shelter the child and help him raise enough money to go to London, where his mother awaits.

With the exception of Leaud’s nosy neighbor and a gloomy detective (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), Le Havre’s townsfolk help Marcel carry out his plan to help the young Gabonese boy flee from the authorities and, in one of the picture’s wackier developments, host a benefit concert featuring French rockabilly singer Little Bob.

The movie includes several wonderful absurdist touches in Kaurismaki’s trademark deadpan style – a detective carries a large pineapple while conducting interrogations, a friend of Arletty reads Franz Kafka to the sick woman to cheer her up and another character, upon receiving a condolence for her recently deceased husband, responds, “Why? He was a fatalist.”

The film’s finale includes not one, but two, miracles, adding to the story’s fantastical aura.

“Le Havre,” which includes nods to classic French filmmakers Jacques Tati and Jean Renoir, is a funny, moving and optimistic fairy tale of underdog solidarity.