Thrilling & Chilling: Review of “Paranormal Activity 2”

When the trailer was initially pulled from Cinemark theaters as a response to complaints that it was “too scary,” the highly anticipated “Paranormal Activity 2” was sure to be just as disturbing as its predecessor.  After seeing this film, I can confirm that this sequel is sure to perturb anyone traumatized by “Paranormal Activity,” due to its heightened scares, relatable themes and chilling believability.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive reception of “Paranormal Activity,” it’s no wonder “Paranormal Activity 2” broke the box office record for highest grossing midnight premiere of an R-rated movie at $6.3 million.

When I was heading into “Paranormal Activity 2,” I was expecting to see more videotaped terror and creepy moving furniture. While I was hoping that this would be as well crafted as the original, I prepared for the worst. However, this sequel surpassed my expectations, scaring several people out of the theater in under an hour.

This sequel will delight fans of the first movie. Whatever “Paranormal Activity” had done right with its effects, “Paranormal Activity 2” cleaned up and capitalized on. The plot line is more in-depth, the suspense more unhinging, and the demons more ruthless.

While most sequels overdo the best aspects of their originals, new director Tod Williams did a very nice job on not commercializing anything the first director, Oren Peli, did well for the first film. While it was still a low budget film of $3 million, it was still almost 200 times the budget of the original. Williams tried to stay away from using elaborate props and effects, even with access to more money, therefore staying true to the simplistic style of “Paranormal Activity.” This helped the film appear to be more of an actual account, and in turn made each effect more creepy.

Like the original, “Paranormal Activity 2” centralizes around a family being haunted by a demon. The family, in this case, is the Rey family, consisting of Katie’s (the protagonist of the first movie) sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden), her husband, Dan (Brian Boland), Dan’s daughter, their baby son, Hunter, and their dog. The family installs video surveillance cameras throughout the house after an unexplainable break-in. However, instead of documenting any more burglaries, it films something much more sinister, something that’s after Hunter.

When Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), the protagonists from ‘Paranormal,’ first appeared about 15 minutes into the movie, I was very confused as to why they were there. The last time we saw them in “Paranormal Activity,” Katie was crouched over Micah’s murdered body, grinning demonically out at the audience. It isn’t until later in the film that it is revealed that “Paranormal Activity 2” takes place about two months before the events of the first movie.

This helped to wrap up several questions from the previous film, including how the demon got Katie’s burned photograph, why the demon chose Katie to haunt and why the demon is following Katie and her sister. However, a lot of details were revealed discretely, and bypassed many audience members. This is especially unfortunate, because some key points may get overlooked. I had to go back and check Wikipedia for several questions I had about the film, and I know the people I saw the film with missed even more than I did.

The film’s “documentary” approach is much easier to watch, since the six stationary security cameras are used for most of the film’s footage, rather than the shaky handheld camera signature to “documentary” flicks like “Paranormal Activity” and “The Blair Witch Project.” There are very few instances when a handheld camera is used, so the jolting, motion-sickness inducing factor of the movie is toned down from the original. Even with the better flow from scene to scene, the eerie stillness of the house leaves the audience white-knuckled and waiting for one of the film’s notorious, heart-stopping bangs, of which there are plenty.

Much like the original, “Paranormal Activity 2” relies heavily on suspense to fuel its scares. What starts as something as innocent as a self-operating toy escalates to events like cabinets thundering closed around a cowering Kristi. I personally don’t feel that this tactic should be the only source for terror. Including more psychological twists would have benefited the film as a whole, and would’ve made it more haunting than your basic pop-out-of-nowhere effects.

It was clever how Williams turned all of my attention away from where the scares were going to come from, making even simple scares more horrifying and unexpected than they already were. It was a good touch to bring the dog into film, with the dog’s ability to sense danger prominent throughout the movie. Many scenes were set up around the dog guarding Hunter’s crib from something in the night, growling at an unseen force, which set my friends on edge.

The quick and clean final scenes of the film left my theater dead silent. After a few moments of pitch black darkness, a final epilogue was played onscreen, and the lights slowly dimmed on.

It took 10 minutes to coax my friend out of the theater.