The original Paranormal Activity absolutely scared me senseless! Ice cold body chills rattled around my frame for it’s duration and if truth be told, I will never watch that movie again. It left a mark…and yes I’m a big wuss. I was absolutely dreading going to see the sequel…well more a prequel than sequel due to the terror the first one provided.
The found footage / cctv footage / handheld genre isn’t exactly new but some movies do it better than others. Can the sequel to the movie that mastered these genres do it again? Well, sadly, the answer is not really. After experiencing a series of break ins, or what the family think are break ins, Dad forks out the cash for a CCTV system for the house. Nearly an hour into the 90 minute proceedings, the family realise that it’s not the local burglar, but in fact, something far more sinister. And that's that. Cue CCTV footage interlinked with handheld footage and you have a movie that tries very hard to imitate it’s world conquering bigger brother, but instead it fails abysmally.
Why? Well for a number of reasons. Firstly, the pacing here is way off the mark. Paranormal Activity 2 takes an incredibly long period of time to get going and it’s only in the last quarter that things kick off, but by then, chances are you’ve probably walked out. Don’t get me wrong, there are a thimbleful of scares and jumps along the way, but we’ve seen it all done before.
Secondly, the performances of the cast are average at best. None of them look remotely terrified and when the best performances come from a one year old, an Alsatian and a pool cleaning robot, well…that says it all.
Thirdly, the sequel / prequel has taken an incredibly simple original movie and, with the help of a bigger budget, has overly complicated the whole thing with too many characters and too many cameras, where nothing happens for 80% of the time.
Fourthly, the actual “real life” portrayed is way off the beaten track. I’ve never seen somebody film their lives so much and I don’t think anybody would go to the lengths of self filming that goes on here. And the house itself? It must be the quietest house on the planet.
Paranormal Activity 2 tries to capitalise on the success of the original and it’s blatantly obvious that’s all this is. Whilst the original movie was like getting run over by a freight train, this is more like getting run over by a duckling.For the absolutely die hard fans (and I mean die hard fans) of the original, you might like this to see the origins of the demon and how Katie (who also stars here) got involved (in the original). For everyone else though, this is the best performance by a dog and a pool cleaning robot you will see all year.
