2010 Review #86: Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 2

Rated R

1 hour 31 minutes

Story:

After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem. This is essentially a prequel to the first film.

Directed By: Tod Williams

Starring:

Katie Featherston

(no other cast listed on IMDB)

Critics Grade:

68%

My Grade:

B

This film was hastily made over the course of just a few months since the incredible success of the first Paranormal Activity film. Which was a horror movie I very much enjoyed. I like subtle horror, I'm not a fan of this in your face, special effects crazy, bloody horror flick that we see all the time these days. I like when a scary movie is quiet and messes with your brain and imagination to freak you the hell out. That's how the first movie was for me. It was "real". It was claustrophobic. It relied on our fears of the unknown to spook us. It used the hand held, shaky camera effect to make it more realistic and I for one think it worked pretty darn well. It was one of the freakiest movies I've seen because it was the kind of movie that scared me. Now it won't scare everyone of course, and neither will this sequel.

The first film was huge and made a large amount of money considering it was only made for about $15,000. The sequel could have taken advantage of the success and made some big budget horror movie and could have gone away from the original concept. Much like the sequel to Blair Witch Project (Great first film, HORRIBLE second movie). Paranormal Activity 2 does not do that. It does not cheat us or try to impress us. It sticks to exactly what it's good at. There is still a hand held camera but the main difference is that now we have security cameras to go along with it, so this movie is slightly more high tech but it sticks to it's source very well. It has a cast of virtual unknowns and even has the return of Micah and Katie from the first film.

I should now say that this is basically a prequel to the original story. It takes place roughly 60 days before the death of Micah (they tell us this on screen at one point). The wife in this movie is Katie's sister and we learn the demon was affecting her family first before it tormented the couple from the first film. We also learn it effected their mother and then grandmother before that. This is the one weakness of this film, it tries to hard to develop story and characters. It delves into cliched horror movie story lines such as demons traveling through families and wanting first born sons. There's no need to try to get complicated with story elements, that's not what people are here to see. We are in a movie like this to get scared. Just put a basic story in it to give it a reason for existing and go from there. Also the transition between the stories of both films was a bit silly. But oh well. It wasn't TO overbearing of a storyline, they only threw in that stuff in a few scenes here and there.

The performances were probably on par with the first movie. Some people thought Katie and Micah were really bad in the first film, I personally thought they came off as very believable. This movie we have a much larger cast, about 6 adults and a baby (two the characters are Micah and Katie who pop up every once in a while). There is also a dog involved. I think Katie Featherston overdoes some of her scenes and you can tell she is acting a lot. The rest of them come off as a pretty believable family. There are times when it gets to be to much, especially with the dad towards the end of the movie. But again, this isn't the kind of movie we are supposed to give a crap about performances. They should be decent enough so that they aren't laughable because that can be distracting and take away from the effect of the movie. They are good enough to keep the mood of the film in tact.

The first movie was pretty creepy to me personally. They did some pretty cool things with effects, considering they had such a small budget. The scene where Katie was dragged out of the bed freaked my mind! You have a couple times here in this movie where people (or babies) are dragged or pulled and you do lose the "oh shit" factor this time, but it still remains to be a bit creepy. There are a lot of loud noises that come out of nowhere that honestly made me jump on a few occasions. The jump scenes here weren't random either. There wasn't any cats jumping out of closets or random birds flying out of rubble. They happened for a reason and they happened in scenes were I truly did not expect them at the time. There was this scene that got me good...involving cabinets and drawers opening. I won't say more than that. It startled the hell out of me. This movie, like the first, remains very subtle the whole time. There isn't really any in your face moments. No major visual effects. Just a lot of things moving on their own, some creepy loud noises and a whole lot of quietness. Quietness scares me in movies, I won't lie. There are numerous scenes here where there is dead silence and you have no idea what's about to happen. Sometimes something happens, sometimes something does it. That's why the scares are so good because they tease you. They build up tension so well. I love that. You have to build it slowly not just open with a big scary scene and go straight from there. It has to be slow to be effective, at least for me. This movie, as did the first one, does this so very well. I thought this movie was consistently scary and it unnerved me several times. I felt uncomfortable during many scenes and there was definitely an element of surprise.

I've read some reviews and heard people say they hated this movie because it was just like the first and there was nothing new. So what? If it ain't broke, don't fix it right?? Why would you want them to go on a bigger scale this time and potentially ruin it all? Stick with what worked to begin with. The "Saw" franchise also fell victim to this. The first movie wasn't all that gory, and was much more of a mind messing kind of movie. Then all the tons of sequels became increasingly gory and violent. No need to change what wasn't in need of any change. I for one hope they make a third one. So far they have been reliable. These movies are only meant to scare us not to wow us with great stories and certainly not to stray off course from what they were originally designed to do. I thought this movie was just as scary as the first movie. I liked the first one a bit better just because it was simple and didn't try to thrown some stupid story at us involving first born sons, blah blah blah. That's the only thing I really didn't like about this movie. Otherwise, I feel Paranormal Activity 2 is a very worthy sequel. I guess it's not for everyone though. It was for me.

**BTW Sorry, there weren't many pictures for this movie online that I could add to the blog**