Film Review: Paranormal Activity 2

SPOILERS ABOUND.

Last year Paranormal Activity arrived seemingly out of nowhere to cinema screens and made a huge splash as well as a shed load of money for Paramount (made for around $11,000 it went on to make over $100 million in the States alone) and even more impressively I found a horror film that actually made me jump on multiple occasions.

Dealing with what you didn't see over what you did, PA1 masterfully ramped up the tension and delivered real shocks and a hell of an ending.

But, of course it made over $100 million so a sequel was bound to happen. But how do you follow on from a film shot with handheld cameras with only 2 main characters (And one of them is killed off at the end)?

Simple it seems. Prequel, baby.

Starting around 60 days before events of the first film this focuses on the sister of Katie from the original and her family (Husband, step daughter, dog and baby). Spooked by what appears to be a break in the family invest in 6 hidden cameras to be dotted around their house to prevent it happening again. What we see on screen is a combination of that 'footage' and camcorder hijinks normally to do with the baby, but is used as things get worse in the house.

Appearances from Katie and Micah from the original are made and groundwork for what happens to them is laid quite nicely surprisingly. They are in about 3 or 4 scenes total, more of a guest spot than actual starring roles.

The slightly silly plot that sets up the reason for the demon visitation this time around is that if you make a deal with a demon they can claim your first born child. References to Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Katie's mother are made, and eventually a transfer of the hauntings to a blood relative sets up the events of the first film.

So with the plot out of the way...how is the paranormal activity?

The use of sound is still there, but a lot less of the footsteps this time. The subtleties are still there, a door opening, the babies carousel moving slowly on it's own. The big jumps are still there but a lot less for me this time round (2 in fact - the first thump and all the cupboards in the kitchen both got me), I'm sure another would have happened in the climatic basement scene but it seemed a bit too much like REC for me but in a basement instead of an attic.

Something else that bugged me throughout was that they deviated from casting unknowns. I find that these films worked a lot better when you don't recognize anyone in them. Obviously, you know it's not real but it adds a sense of reality to it that you wouldn't get if Bruce Willis showed up.

As I watched it I thought the lead actress who played Kristi did indeed look a bit like Sprague Grayden who was in Six Feet Under and played the President's daughter in Season 7 of 24 but thought that it was just a similarity but the credits revealed otherwise which will really take me out of the film the next time I watch it.

But overall it was a worthy, albeit rather pointless sequel. The few questions that were left from the original like 'Why did the demon return when it did?" and "Where did the photo come from?" didn't REALLY need answering but they were answered in a very satisfactory way without getting silly.

Silly, though, is a worry I start to get should a third in the series emerge (and Paranormal Activity 2 made $20 million on it's FIRST DAY OUT in the States, it seems like a inevitability). Surely they can't use the CCTV or camcorder stunt again, but on the other hand - they can't film it like a regular film. That takes away the franchises gimmick.

Of course there may not be a sequel- the demon Katie has the baby, the debt is paid and common sense may win out over money for once. But if they do I'm wanting it called Paranormal Activity 3: Babies Day Out.

***

An unnecessary sequel but aren't they all? PA2 still provides some great shocks but let's hope they leave it there.