"Paranormal Activity" had the same effect as "The Blair Witch Project" did more than a decade ago - it shattered the glass when it comes to producing and presenting horror films. A year after "Paranormal Activity", its sequel is finally here. If last year's film was on a tight budget and is a gold mark when it came to marketing it, this year's edition won't have any of those worries to think about. With a $3 million dollar budget, you just have to wonder how much more they can give with that kind of money (the original film was on a $15,000 budget). And with all the hype it got last year and the film delivering much universal praise, marketing won't be a problem at all. Let's hope that they haven't been too complacent. Read on to find out what we think of "Paranormal Activity 2".
In 2006, a burglary happens on the home of the Rey family. Every room has been tampered with and trashed but nothing has been taken except for the necklace of Kristie's (Sprague Grayden) sister, Katie Featherston. Dan (Brian Boland), the head of the family, decides to put up numerous security cameras for the family's protection. A few nights pass and soon the family hears noises - their housekeeper and nanny believes that an evil spirit is tormenting the house. When she tries to remove the spirit away from the house, she is immediately fired by Dan. Ali (Molly Ephraim), Dan's daughter, feels that something unusual is up and her research online shows that a human can make a deal with a demon for wealth and power. In exchange, the demon will get the first-born son within the family. As chance would have it, brother Hunter is the first-born male in the family of Kristie and Katie. Is the demon after Hunter?
"Paranormal Activity 2" ties up well with the first film actually adding more substance to how the first film explained everything. We still feel that it was too similar to the first one. Keeping it simple, if you liked how they presented the first film then you would probably love this even more. The presentation is better actually - thanks to the security camera scheme you have a better sense of what's happening around the house. The acting is still top-notch which feels natural, real and clearly adds up to how scared the audience will be. And here lies the paradox to "Paranormal Activity 2" - it's just too similar to its predecessor. It's like buying this year's car knowing that only some of the exterior trimmings have changed. We feel that last year's problem, the boring stuff where nothing happens, showed up more this time around even during the night scenes. We remember really feeling the tension when the night footage was shown on the first film but this was gone when we watched "Paranormal Activity 2". To end our review, we adamantly feel that "Paranormal Activity" does not warrant a sequel and "Paranormal Activity 2" fails to show that our feelings are wrong. Even though the sequel helps explain a lot of things in the first film, some things should just be left untouched and such is the case for "Paranormal Activity".
Rating: 2 reels
Why you should watch it:
- if you liked the first film then you probably will like the second one's approach
- better story that ties up pretty well with the first one
Why you shouldn't watch it:
- compared to the first, this has less scares and less impact overall
- we felt that this does not warrant a sequel for the first one
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Comments
Not keen on watching the second movie coz it's the same thing as the first, like you said. And that it's really not that scary coz it wasn't real in the first place. Still, I'll watch it coz I did watched the first one.
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