Review: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

Director Tod Williams' Paranormal Activity 2 is brought to us just one year after Oren Peli delivered the thrills of the effectively low budget original. 2 is a prequel to the first film, set only sixty days prior to the first day of the original. The film follows the extended family of Katie (Katie Featherson), the protagonist of the initial film. Katie's sister Christie and her husband, step-daughter, baby, and German Shepherd are living in a house that is becoming more and more noticeably occupied by a demon. This film surprisingly pleases on nearly all levels. Being a sequel of a film that achieved its success while remaining extremely simplistic, it was smart not to go overboard. It did however have all of the astonishingly eerie elements of the first film along with some additional ones. The home video-style camera work remained the same, continuing to bring the fear closer to home with its sense of realism. As any great sequel should, 2 contained more victims, more bumps, more chills, and improved on the previous film- making it ultimately scarier for this viewer. Additionally, writers Michael R. Perry and Oren Peli wisely added a few factors to create a tension not achieved in the first- a baby, a dog, and a non-believer. There is nothing quite as tense as evil being clearly present to the audience and the protagonist, but not to their loved one. Going into this film I had my expectations lower than the original, yet the outcome exceeded the original. Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2 (Much like the spanish shaky-cam film duo Rec and Rec 2) connect and feed off of each other in a way not often achieved, earning this quality sequel 31/2 stars.