A year ago Paranormal Activity was the $11,000 film that could and I absolutely loved it. Made on a minuscule budget, the film went on to make over $107 million at the domestic box-office and a sequel was all but inevitable. Thirteen months later Paranormal Activity 2 is here, intent on copying the home video formula that made the first film such a success. Using props such as a German Shepherd and an infant, this film takes advantage of familiar horror film cliches for its scares rather than what felt like innovative storytelling with the original. Granted, the sequel does have its share of jump-enducing moments, but beyond that this isn't anything more than just a copy of any number of films we've seen using first person camerawork to tell its story.
The first film, written and directed by Oren Peli, centered on a young couple that experiences a series of paranormal occurrences in their new home. Determined to get to the bottom of what's going on they attempt to capture it on camera leading to a truly frightening feature film. Paranormal Activity 2 sticks to what made the original so frightening, though this time around most of the footage is captured by newly installed surveillance cameras, which becomes part of the film's problems.
I won't go into the particulars of the story, but I will say this time around a new family is tormented by an unseen demon. Married couple, Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Daniel (Brian Boland) are raising Ali (Molly Ephraim), his teenage daughter, and the couple's newborn son, Hunter. Periodically, over the course of several nights, they find themselves dealing with the inexplicable. Hanging pots fall in the middle of the night, kitchen cabinets open in the middle of the day and the family dog can only growl and bark at seemingly empty spaces.
When things aren't caught on surveillance camera it's Ali and her video camera that capture much of the daytime action, but, like many films trying to tell the story from this perspective, the reason they are recording every mundane aspect of their lives is unclear. On top of that, when crazy things begin to happen, only occasionally do they check the surveillance cameras looking for an explanation. Sorry, I would be checking those things hourly.
Legitimacy was the greatest aspect of the first film, and what made it so good. There seemed to be reason for why things were being recorded and it added value to have the film's characters watch what they had recorded, allowing them to see exactly what the audience was seeing. Unfortunately, in the sequel the cameras are merely there to capture the story until it's necessary they take a more active role, such as the REC-style finale. Paranormal Activity made the audience part of the haunt while the sequel loses the intimacy and turns you into an impartial and detached observer.
Working with a story written by first time feature screenwriter Michael Perry, director Tod Williams (The Door in the Floor) fills his duties, but there hardly seems to be much of a directorial eye to this film. It would have also been nice if there weren't so many dull moments in an effort to build tension. Like the first film, each night begins with a date stamp and the audience does enter something of a collective clenched-fist moment, but the scares aren't on par with the original. While there may have been a few more screams in my audience, they were primarily as a result of "gotcha" moments and they were rather short-lived.
Walking home from the first film I legitimately wondered if I would have any issue sleeping that night. After watching the sequel I was primarily talking about everything that scared me about the first film rather than what scared me in the sequel. Paranormal Activity 2 feels like a remake of the original feature it's so similar in look and so lacking in invention, feeling like a hybrid of Peli's film and every other lame PG-13 supernatural thriller out there.
I would still say this is a film worth seeing in the theater if you like scary films, but keep those hopes minimal. I would also advise anyone that disliked the first film to stay far away, you won't like this one any better.