Post by StevePulaski on Oct 30, 2010 23:54:01 GMT -5
Hunter and the dog in Paranormal Activity 2.
Rating: ★★½
Paranormal Activity 2 is a perfect example of a sequel that is not necessarily bad, but simultaneously not needed as well. It stuck to the same format as the original which is already more that can be said about the sequel to Blair Witch and it tied with the original Paranormal film as well which was definitely the film's highpoint. The rest not so much. There isn't much new or surprising. The jump scares are back and at full force in this film. Do they work? Sometimes. Are they needed? Nope.
It angers me how much "jump scares" have become adapted as the primary scare in films today. Put the new Nightmare on Elm Street up to the podium. Every five minutes we get a "bang", "boom", "pow", "insert onomatopoeia here". It's hard to even think of a movie that used legitimate scares instead of some cliche synth/raise in pitch. Films in the 80's did use some essence of jump scares, but it would be one "boom" before a murder. Now it's around three or four before something happens. Though in PA2, jump scares serve as the main scare now. The loud noise is now the scare. Not just part of the suspense build up. That didn't bother me in the first one because the jumps in that film were well done and they were new and fresh, this one you see it coming twenty minutes before it occurs.
We get a new set of characters this time around; Kristi (Katie's sister from the original film), her husband Dan, her daughter Ali, the newborn infant Hunter, and the family dog. Just by telling someone that sentence already gives a horror movie fan the obvious information to which one will be the primary target of paranormal beings. They put a baby and a dog in the horror film, two sensitive characters that usually know and sense more than the teenagers/adults. So we already know who will get the most attention.
Kristi has had her first infant son named Hunter and they settle down in a house around the corner from Katie and her husband Micah (characters in original film). Things start getting creepy when some "paranormal activity", hint-hint, starts occurring in the house and the family begins experiencing odd events in the night, Hunter's lack of sleep, cabinets opening on cue, and many other things that provide one too many loud noises. It gets frustrating to have to keep hearing a clutter and a clank for something as easy as switching cameras.
Another thing mindblowingly frustrating is that the film keeps going from day to night much like the first film. But we have to continuously see the same exact scenery. Half the time nothing is happening and it's like watching ongoing security cameras in a closed mall. What fun! We see the hallway, pool, kitchen, living room, entrance way, then Hunter's room in that order. We see the parents room and Ali's room briefly in the beginning of the film, but why we never see it throughout the movie like the other six places is beyond me. Maybe paranormal species do not like visiting parents' bedrooms and teenagers rooms. Maybe the ghost hates posters/various stickers of Jacob of Twilight that are possibly flooding the girl's room? Anything is possible.
Upon it's release, Paranormal Activity received various positive reviews from critics/audience. Though for some reason I have not been able to find one person who found it above average. I really enjoyed the first film, and it earned a four star review from me around a year ago. The Blair Witch Project is another film that's mixed opinion. Some love it, some hate it. Rarely are there any in between reviews of the film. I enjoy both movies and call them effective Horror films that do more justice than any CGI filled heap we are usually handed to today. Paranormal Activity 2 is fine to say the least, but it's a huge disappointment coming off of the first masterpiece. Horror can go a long way, but to do the same thing twice has rarely been sufficient.
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Brian Boland, Sprague Grayden, Molly Ephraim, and Tim Clemens. Directed by: Tod Williams.