Random Movie: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

After the original was released and grossed roughly 7000x its budget at the ticket counters alone, it didn’t take long for a sequel to be greenlit. Now with the Saw series allegedly over, Paramount has positioned Paranormal Activity to take the crown for late October horror franchises that are likely to get beaten into the ground. It is pretty safe to say that if you liked the first PA, you will probably like this one too. But that is mostly because it is the same exact movie as the first with different choices in how it is shot and more characters. And a dog. And a monster robot pool cleaner.

While I didn’t dislike Paranormal Activity 2, I cannot really see where it can go from here for the already planned part three or beyond. The first worked well because it was different, not so much in plot or execution, but from what we were seeing at the time. The gimmick though is gone and it is almost as if the producers decided to remake the first movie to throw the audience off. After all, no one would expect to see the same thing, almost beat for beat, again. This time, we meet Daniel and Kristy, a married couple with a new baby, Hunter, and a teenage daughter from Daniel’s previous marriage. After someone ransacks their house, Daniel has a handful of security cameras installed … no alarm system though. These cameras as well as the family’s handheld professional-ish camera are awkwardly edited together to make up the movie.



If you haven’t heard already, Katie and Micah from the first film are back. Initially I didn’t like that the new family was tied to the events of the original. It stank of pandering and unoriginality to me. But as things progressed, the film actually ties in nicely with the first. Other than that, I could probably rerun my review for PA1, change some names and events and be left with the same conclusion. I had figured that we would be spared from the lengthy build up to the crazy events of the first but no such luck. In fact, it almost seems longer for anything to really start happening this go around.

It could be the fact that a lot of the surveillance camera footage is wasted on establishing that most of the time nothing happens. With the positioning of the cameras, there is a large amount of real estate on screen to watch out for freaky things that may not be front and center. Most of the time, that was a futile effort as we just see the typical day to day life of the family. I will admit though that when the demon/life-force/whatever finally started lashing out, it was quite unnerving. Just like with the first, there were many scenes where not only did I jump at what I was supposed to but also carried an uneasy feeling while watching. If only there wasn’t the entire first hour to go through to get to that point.

The acting from the family was decent enough: nothing special but it didn’t distract from the movie. Whereas the first worked as a legitimate “found footage” movie because it was impossible to place the lead actors, this movie blows it with casting Sprague Grayden as Kristy. Given the lack of success of her previous shows including Jericho, most people probably would not be able to place her but I didn’t have that luxury. And can the studios please move beyond trying to sell this as “real events?” At this point, we know it’s a movie so it seems laughable to have a “Thanks to whatever Police Department” at the beginning for the footage. The biggest problem I had was the jarring editing job during some scenes that cut mid sentence for no reason.

I guess I would call this one good, but kind of pointless. If you haven’t seen the original, you would probably get along with this movie just fine. If you have, you’ll be wondering why you paid money to basically see the same thing again. The inclusion of Katie and working her into the narrative was cool and all, but I hope if they plan to continue this series for many years that they get a new hook.