Movie Review: ‘PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2’

Last year, a relatively independent film called Paranormal Activity was released due to an aggressive and smart “You Demand It” campaign via Eventful.  For hardcore horror fans, most of us heard about the film when it premiered at Screamfest in October 2007 then showed at Slamdance 3 months later.  There was talk that once Paramount picked up the film that they were going to remake it, instead they did the smart thing and released the original.  While Paranormal Activity 2 might seem more of a product like the Saw franchise that it is trying to edge out, there is actually a story that compliments the first film here.  The question is, what, if anything, does this new entry bring to the table.

I will do my best to not spoil the film, but keep in mind that there might be some things you might not want to know and I suggest going into the film pretty cold.  However, if you weren’t the hugest fan of Paranormal Activity and the last time you saw it was in the theater last year, you might want to read on to lay some of the story groundwork prior to viewing the new entry.

Paranormal Activity 2 follows a family consisting of a husband, his 2nd wife (this is important), a teenager and their newborn child, Hunter.  The film begins when the parents bring home Hunter then seems to skip ahead a bit, yet the film doesn’t really clarify this, it just happens.  Later (like half way through the movie), slowly but surely, some things start to happen that could be attributed to the paranormal.  Or, it could just be pans falling off and electronic devices acting up.  After experiencing more of these incidents, the ladies of the house start to grow concerned that there is something happening beyond their control.  Someone decides to break out the Ouija board in order to get to the bottom of what is happening.

Of course, when weird stuff happens in a house, it is time to break out the Ouija board and use it as an investigative tool.  Usually, the Ouija board is mocked and I’m sure it gets its feelings hurt and asks for demonic back up to give an “I told you so” response to the inhabitants of the house.  Ok, maybe I’m making light out of a bad situation, but it is exactly how it went down in the first one as well and anytime Ouija boards are used in film, we know it is a gateway to the “bad people”.  I guess this family doesn’t watch a lot of horror movies like I do.

I wasn’t a fan of Paranormal Activity and I’m here to say that if you didn’t enjoy the previous entry, this one doesn’t bring anything new as far as structure or visual.  It turns out that Paranormal Activity 2 is a pseudo prequel that by the end catches up to the same night that the prior entry ended on.  All of this takes place in 2006 and the last time I checked HD camcorders were not really available in the small, compact consumer forms that they are in this film.  Hell, when you look at Paranormal Activity – and footage from the original is in this one – you can tell that this entry has better quality from its handheld cameras than the main one used in the first one. 

All technical believability aside, this new film actually does improve on some things that I had a problem with from the previous film.  First off, I felt that in the first film there was a lack of intrigue.  When you do faux “found footage” film, it is tough to get dramatically involved with the characters – especially in the original film – because you have a disconnected, voyeuristic view of the events.  With a film like The Blair Witch Project, I think the majority of audiences could relate to the characters, even have emotions towards them.  I just didn’t care about the characters in Paranormal Activity, I actually somewhat was annoyed with them.  This time around, the family is very relatable and likeable.  The scares are a bit more effective as well as they seem to be happening throughout the house as opposed to just the bedroom.  By doing this, we know that the house, as a whole, could not have one safe place inside.  Paranormal Activity 2 almost feels like a “found footage” version of Hooper’s Poltergeist, but like a 4th generation VHS copy version of it.

I felt like there are some missed opportunities in this film.  It dives into the mythology of the setup of why this is happening to this family – turns out that the stepmother is related to Katie from the first film and could be the cause of this.  I like that they introduce some instability to this film by introducing an infant to this scenario.  However, I feel like the filmmakers stuck to what worked for the majority of audiences the last time and didn’t want to deviate from that formula.  The structure is exactly the same and, with the audience I watched it with, it got stale.  After the formal introductions to the family, you feel like pressing the fast forward button past the day scenes just to get to the juicy night stuff.  Even then, some of night scenes are a tease and do not offer anything.

Paranormal Activity 2 improves on some my issues I had with the previous entry, but ultimately feels like a product as opposed to a continuation to any story introduced.  To the people who enjoyed the first one, you may or may not like this one – I only say this because of the crowd reaction I heard coming out of the screening.  I can say for certain that if you didn’t like Paranormal Activity, you won’t really find anything new in its latest entry.  There are some scares that got me in Paranormal Activity 2 unlike its predecessor, but still walked away with that familiar sense of the absence of fulfillment.