Paranormal Activity 2 *½

When it was released in cinemas last year, the first Paranormal Activity movie became one of the most talked about movies of the year, seemingly repeating the success of 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project, a film whose popularity largely seemed to revolve around the fact that it supposedly consisted of real found footage – something we now know not to be true. Paranormal Activity did not claim to be real in its marketing but nonetheless adopted the facade of real found footage in the film itself. Its massive box office success – it cost a mere $15,000 to make yet grossed $193 million worldwide – ensured that a sequel was inevitable. But does this sequel – or should I say prequel as the film is mostly set prior to the first film and its events actually lead into those of the first film – follow in the footsteps of Blair Witch follow-up Book of Shadows, a film that was a colossal flop when compared with the huge success of the first film, or does Paranormal Activity 2 actually prove to be more than just a mere cash in that will actually be ignored by moviegoers? The massive amount already made at the US box office already makes clear that, commercially at least, it isn’t a repeat of the ‘Blair Witch’ sequel but the quality of the film, however, is a different story.

After experiencing what they think are a series of “break-ins”, Kristi Rey (Sprague Grayden) and her family – husband Dan, stepdaughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) and baby son Hunter – set up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem. Gradually becoming convinced that something evil and otherworldly is going on in their house, things only seem to get worse, particularly once Kristi’s sister Katie (Katie Featherstone) becomes involved…

I did not get the opportunity to view the first Paranormal Activity film so I am unable to comment on its quality but if it was anything like Paranormal Activity 2 I really fail to see what all the fuss was about. Supposedly, this is a film so scary that it will give you nightmares, yet I found very little here that is likely to do this. Sure, the film is scary in places but so are many horror movies and there is little here that really sets this film apart from the many others out there. It takes ages for anything to actually happen and when it does, the scares are mostly just of the jump out of your seat variety and then they are largely achieved by lulling you into a false sense of security first. There is no finesse in any of the scares here and while things that go bump in the night – and in the day – such as creepy noises, things being knocked over, things being broken, shadows appearing from thin air, doors opening and slamming on their own, things moving on their own, cupboards bursting open and people levitating do prove spooky, they will only be particularly scary to those who scare very easily. And the scares that are present are rather fleeting, the majority of the film consisting of nothing of any real interest happening. Watching mundane events night after night becomes rather repetitive, even tedious, and the majority of the film ends up being rather boring. Not only that but there is very little semblance of plot and what there is, while tying rather cleverly with the storyline of the first film (the character of Katie from the first film plays a prominent role here and events that take place here add a level of explanation to events from the first film), just becomes increasingly ridiculous and contrived as the film progresses, leading up to an ending that is just absurd. If there is one thing that the film does achieve entirely successfully, however, it is in creating a sense that what we are seeing is real – which is clearly what we are supposed to think given this film is given this opening statement at the start of it: “Paramount Pictures would like to thank the families of the deceased and the [so and so] Police Department”. On several occasions, things happen that will really make you think: how did they do that? And the combination of home video style footage shot on handheld camera and CCTV style footage real does seem authentic, although dull at the same time, the film tending to seem like an average home video for the most part, i.e. not that interesting to anyone who isn’t a member of the family. Realism is also present in the acting with every member of the cast delivering a very strong performance and ensuring that we really believe we are watching real people rather than just actors and perhaps if we didn’t know it was all staged we might actually believe it all to be real. So, Paranormal Activity 2 is a film that seems very realistic and displays definite technical prowess on the part of the filmmakers behind it but, with few scares that really stand out and a tendency to be rather dull in the non scary majority of the film, it is just too dull and uninteresting to really recommend to anyone.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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