Paranormal Activity 2
After an alleged break-in, a semi-spooked family decide to install a bunch of cameras so they can keep a better eye on things. When more bizarre occurrences start taking place they slowly come around the idea that something isn’t right and that there’s a good chance they’re not alone in the house.
I guess I’ll begin by saying that PARANORMAL ACTIVITY didn’t “wow” me like it did so many others but there’s a reason for this and that reason is that this “video camera” take on things has been done nearly to death these days. Add to that the overabundance of ghost/possession films that have been haunting theatres and video stores for the past decade and you may begin to understand my ire, but before we feed that fire let me just say this film was slow as all hell. Watching the days go by as the camera scans the pool and all the same rooms over and over went beyond tedious. By midpoint I just wanted them all to die so I could be done with this flick but sadly the only person dying at that point was me…of boredom.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT kick started this genre apocalypse back in the nineties but at least then it was a fresh perspective; creepy sounds, stuff moving around, things going bump in the night, all being recorded by supposed real victims, it was pure gold and we all ate it up. Then what happened? Well, what always does in Hollywood when someone has a good idea: they bled it dry. I don’t have to tell you how piss poor a sequel BOOK OF SHADOWS panned out to be, and why, because they’d already used up all the WTF-juice on the first film and like so many other sequels, the bar was already so high it had nowhere else to go but down. Okay, so yes, they do splice a semi-interesting arc into this new story but all in all, this film takes us down the same worn path into all too familiar territory.
The characters involved were also a bit of letdown for me. Now let’s look beyond the fact that the family nanny just happened to be all into spiritual cleansing, going around the house burning incense and reciting incantations like a voodoo priestess (which got her fired too, nice work Dad), to the fact that the father is completely oblivious, the daughter’s a yahoo who believes everything she reads on the internet and the wife is lost somewhere in the middle. The only redeeming characters were the baby and the dog, so what does that tell you? There were a couple jolts to be sure but when bored to the point of slumber, only to have the silence broken by a loud “bang” or “thud”, yes you might jump but I wouldn’t particularly call that fear, just very poor scare tactics that died in the eighties.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 can only be described as a loathsome letdown drummed up by the same people that brought you the last one in hopes of turning another profit. Stirring aimlessly through an hour and twenty-five minutes for five final minutes of “action” was a taxing endeavour, one I sincerely don’t recommend. Without spoiling anything, let me say that this film ends exactly the way I expected it to (to be fair though, there was one cool twist that led up to it) which isn’t a far cry from the first one or many other similar incarnations. There was no need for this sequel and I would personally sell my soul to demons to ensure no more sequels (or similar films) get made in the future.
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