Paramount | 2010 | 98 mins. | R
Similar to The Blair Witch Project phenomena, Paranormal Activity made its way to screens in 2009, after two years of marketing. Having first screened at Screamfest Film Festival in 2007, there was a lot of buzz surrounded the film long before its debut. Discussion that events in the film were real, despite evidence to the contrary only increased excitement. Made on a budget of just $15,000, Paranormal Activity grossed nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and $194 million worldwide. Given that, a second film was inevitable.
The prequel to Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 2 chronicles the frightening days leading up to the events of the original film. Much like The Blair Witch Project 2, this film feels superfluous and unnecessary, though it is a better movie than the former. Instead of focusing on Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), things shift to Katie’s sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden), who is happily married to Dan (Brian Boland), who tied the knot with her some time after the death of his first wife. He has a teenage daughter, Ali (Molly Ephraim), from his first marriage. In addition, the happy couple has a new baby boy, Hunter, who’s a little over a year old. He spends most of his time standing in his crib staring at things only he can see.
Similar to the first film, the plot deals with the characters being stalked by a demon in their home; what at first seem like harmless bumps in the night, quickly take an alarming turn. All of this is captured on home security cameras (supplemented by camcorder images). This at least eliminates the silly contrivance of someone always having to be running a camera, even during the most unlikely of circumstances. By making this installment a prequel, the filmmakers were able to justify appearances by characters familiar in the first film, but pave the way for the inevitable third installment.
While Paranormal Activity had an undeniable creepiness factor, its follow up misses the mark. Instead of being genuinely scary, it feels as though this one followed a strict map of where to put the “Boo!” moments. It got to the point where I could pretty much tell when they were coming. While you might be startled at certain points, nothing here reaches the level of terror. I actually thought the whole thing a bit on the dull side.
The acting is somewhat better this time around, but it should be, since they used professionals. Of course, there is a bit of a risk; using actors with resumes means you take away any pretense that they events portrayed are real. Though Sprague Grayden isn’t a household name, she likely looks familiar to some from her vast television work, including a lengthy stint on 24.
Director Tod Williams does a fine job trying to replicate Oren Peli’s approach to the first film, but the bigger budget gives this one a different feel. With Paranormal Activity, the filmmakers had a limited budget and were working on ideas and adrenaline. Somehow, things seemed more intense and unknown in the first film. Faced with the pressure to replicate success, Paranormal Activity 2 isn’t terrible; it’s just very run-of-the-mill stuff.
Paranormal Activity 2 was meant to look terrible and on this 1080p transfer, it succeeds! Detail is exactly what one would expect from a camcorder- and surveillance-camera-shot film – smearish and pixilated, but intentionally so, despite that, black levels are as inky and dark as one could expect, and this transfer captures the film’s undynamic color scheme.
This DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound mix is average. Staying with front-centered dialogue almost exclusively, there are a few elements of surrounds that kick in, but compared to other horrorish films, these instances are few and far between.
French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mixes are included, as are English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
Not much in the way of special features. We get some throwaway deleted scenes, a trailer, a DVD Edition and a Digital Copy.
[xrrgroup][xrr label=”Video:” rating=”3.0/5″ group=”s1″ ] [xrr label=”Audio:” rating=”3.0/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Extras:” rating=”2.0/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Film Value:” rating=”2.0/5″ group=”s1″] [/xrrgroup]
