What do you do with a movie that is part sequel that almost has nothing to do with the first four movies?  You obviously just slap a different title on it.

On top of this the entire plot is squashed into about 75 minutes leaving possibly nine minutes of actual scaring time.

The movie sets you up at a high school graduation with the same old home-filmed feel that kept “Paranormal Activity” viewers coming back for years. “The Marked Ones” is based on two likeable, dorky, teenage best friends, Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), who are also accompanied by a relative Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh).

Jacobs and Diaz boast a great chemistry within the entire movie that keeps adults and kids alike laughing at their “Beavis and Butthead”-esque antics while keeping your mind off of the scares that are shortly on their way.

The first hair-raising complication that occurs in the movie is the noises coming from the downstairs of a house belonging to their elderly neighbor, Anna (Gloria Sandoval). The two friends try to investigate by tying a small camera to a string and lowering it down the ventilation shaft where they see Anna scribing odd symbols all over the stomach of a naked woman which causes them to lose focus on the ritual that is really happening.

When Anna turns up murdered the following morning, the boys attempt some amateur sleuthing with a predictable bad ending.

Once in the home of the now dead Anna, strange things take on Jesse, causing the audience to scream “put down the camera.” With Jesse being plagued with some sort of demonic possession, the friends take Jesse’s new powers to YouTube –bombarded by a bunch of online trolls—which sadly keeps up with today’s date. At one point, they even replace your typical Ouija board with a haunted Simon Says game to provoke laughter from the audience.

With this, it is easy to see where the movie is heading, but is obviously in no rush to get there. The movie tends to jump around a lot, it is confusing and makes you want a few minute break to figure out what happened in between scenes.

Heck, some of the almost-to-be gang fights are scarier than half of the pop-up scares. There are even mashed pieces from previous “Paranormal Activity” movies to make it seem like there was somewhat of a connection.

Overall the leads are appealing, but the best scares will be familiar to anyone who has even just seen the trailer.

Rating: 3/5 stars