Reviewed by Daniel Rutledge
You want a few really big jump frights? You’ll find them here, without a doubt.
There are some really fantastic BOO! moments in this sequel to last year’s wildly successful low budget horror, but not a great deal more than that.
The filmmakers certainly took an “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” approach here and if you’re a fan of the original you’ll definitely get the same sort of thrill from Paranormal Activity 2.
There’s no memorable story, no brilliant characters, no great cinematography, just some very creepy sequences punctuated with some massive, terrifying frights.
In saying that, it is better than most horror sequels and expands on the story of the original in a surprisingly satisfying if silly way.
The old faux-home video or “found footage” style horror is, for me, effective. Only the most gullible of children would ever believe it was real, of course, and it seems really weird that Paramount Pictures put the fake message at the beginning of the film about thanking the dead people etc.
But fakeness aside, there is something great about this style of horror film that really helps it scare the pants off people.
There’s always an element of weirdness in supernatural horrors like this, but there’s one bit of weirdness in this one that is really quite silly. Like most vengeful movie spirits, this one is somewhat of a prankster, and way too much of the movie is spent on an automatic pool cleaner that may or may not be being moved about by Mr Demon.
The ending has a couple of disappointing moments for me too, but to even hint at what they were would be a massive spoiler, so no can do.
But the filmmakers set their sights pretty low with the aim of this film and comfortably achieve what they should have. If you’re a fan of the original you’ll love it.
Three stars.
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Paranormal Activity 2
:: Director: Tod Williams
:: Running Time: 92 mins
:: Rating: R16 - Horror Themes & Coarse Language
:: Release Date: October 21, 2010
:: Trailer: Watch here
