The Hollywood cash grab annoys me. It is the reason the Saw movies keep getting produced, or why there are so many sequels, remakes, spin offs and other vanity projects. Paranormal Activity was the biggest surprise of last year and it possibly may have been the biggest surprise in movie history. If that sounds like hyperbole, go run a check on how much it cost to make and how much it ended up raking in. The movie just kept gaining attention and gaining a fan base and when it went to a wide release, the movie just exploded. Naturally, Hollywood wanted to cash in and got a sequel into production as soon as possible. The director of the original stayed on as a producer only and the franchise was handed to the director of Door in the Floor, which was not a horror movie. My interest in Paranormal Activity 2 (PA2) was minimal, but I found myself there at a midnight screening nonetheless.
After coming home to a house that looks like it got broken into, the family of Kristi, Dan, Ali, Hunter, Martine(the housekeeper) and Abby(The German Shepard) decide to install surveillance cameras. Strange spooky stuff starts going on and Kristi gets a bit rattled. Doors slowly open, gusts of wind where there is not wind, doors slamming shut, pots and pans rattling and other sorts of shenanigans start to spook out Ali as well. martine believes the house is cursed with demons but Dan does not believe her and fires her. There is something in the house though, something that drags Hunter(a newborn) out of his crib and down the stairs. Something causes the Ouija board to spell out Hunter's name. Clearly something is wrong. Kristi has a chat with her sister, Katie(From Paranormal Activity)about the freaky things and the sisters both remember things from their youth like this, but Katie reminds Kristi that whatever it is feeds off of attention and it needs your fear to thrive. Kristi and her family then try to ignore it until it goes away.
The thing that made Paranormal Activity such a fun movie going experience was the tension it built. There are people out there who complain about the lack of pay off and there is something legitimate in that complaint, but no one could complain about the slow building tension brought more dramatic by the slow bass sound every time it was about to get ugly. In PA2 the tension is just a bit lackluster, but the pay off, oh the sweet scary pay off is too delicious. I should say pay offs because this movie delivers nice big juicy jumps over and over again. Your eyes still dart all over the screen looking for the faintest of movements of anything. The movie is made creepier by adding a baby to the mix and for making the baby the prime target for the demon. There are pay offs in broad daylight (my favorite one) and there are a variety of pay offs in the final 15 minutes that more than make up for the lack of tension built.
The film takes place roughly 2 months before the first film. yes, this is prequel and we also get a bit of mythology built into PA2. I liked it. I liked that the writers appeared to be doing more than just grabbing cash, they were building a franchise to grab cash. I do typically love franchises if they have interesting mythologies and this one does. Even though the budget was massively larger in this movie, the movie does not feel any bigger and that is a plus when it comes to these Cinema Verite style movies. There is certainly going to be a third movie and most likely a 4th and 5th to follow if they keep making the kind of money the first one made and this one is currently making. Horror movies are cheap to produce and the return on the investment can be astronomical and so far, this budding franchise is absolutely worth it. The hype is delivered on and a great time is had!
PA2 works in a different way than PA, but like the original the acting is pretty bad and there are times when you wonder why they keep running around with a camera, but on the flip side, the hand held camera idea makes the basement scene so damn freaky that most people were watching it crouched down trying to find relief before we even saw or heard what we were scared of. If the movie fails to built tension throughout, it gets it right in the basement. If you enjoyed PA there is a great chance you will also enjoy PA2, but if you thought PA was ridiculous, this movie will not change your mind. They created this film with the audience in mind and kudos to them for understanding their fans.
Final Grade: B
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