Paranormal Activity 2

This will likely be a short review, because on the surface, the film is fairly simple.

I enjoyed the first film. I'm a fan of low-budget, indie, films - especially those which use handheld cameras to capture 'true' mysterious events in people's life. There's something particularly harrowing about this style. For me, it comes across as more real, and more horrific.

Though many, myself included, were nervous about the sequel becoming more 'Hollywood' (given it's much bigger budget), nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the problem with the sequel is that it is too mundane.

The film revolves around the lives of a typical family, Ali, Daniel, and their children Kristi and Hunter (a newborn baby). The first issue I had with the film was that I never felt particularly attached to any character. I don't want this to be a comparative review, but ultimately the first film was much stronger in its willingness to convey the relationship, and characterisation's, of the couple Katie and Brad (who make an appearance in this film - the timelines of both films crossover).

Without giving too much away, strange things start to happen to the Rey family, leading up to an increasingly tense and climactic finale - the last 10 minutes are tense, exciting, and worth watching the film for. But the sense of dread that is supposed to be developed throughout the first hour of the film just isn't here. The scares are few and far between. I understand the concept of creating a scary atmosphere without directly showing us that which we are supposed to fear - and I support it, of course it is scary for our minds to conjour up images than it is to show us fake blood and lame scares. But this film doesn't get the balance right, save for a few expertly crafted moments. By and large, you spend half the film staring at a surveillance camera waiting for that scare, and waiting, and waiting, until the superb ending.

I enjoyed Paranormal Activity 2, don't get me wrong. If you enjoyed the first film, you should watch this one as well. I just think that the potential was there for so much more, hopefully the inevitable third installment will take on some of the complaints aimed at the sequel and take them into account.

Story - 7
Sound - 6
Acting - 7
Immersive - 6

Overall - 6