Director: Tod Williams
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
This review by Adam Truscott.
There are people that love the first Paranormal (Me), and those that hate it (My buddy, MC).
To be fair, there are those that are too girly to watch it, (JMcG).
So I’ll make this easy to assertain whether this review is for you, or not.
Paranormal Activity 2 is the Godfather Pt II of Horror movies.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Come back. I can explain…
I had read up a little on PA2, so unfortunateley for me, the secret was already blown. I had seen the marketing campaign, and wondered who the hooded figure was in little baby Hunters nursury door – with the dog angrily barking.
Two things struck me about that advert/poster campaign.
One, with the lack of reflection, were they going to take the supernatural element one step further – and, at the risk of sounding stupid, take it too far?
The second, was that it had become a fairly iconic advert on the internet, a viral campaigh, that got everyone talking. Who was the hooded character? Were they really going to base the film around endangering a toddler? Would the dog “get it”?
I owe the creator of that advert a big thank you. In using big jump cuts in most of the TV spots I’ve seen since, my expectations were immediately lowered.
I hate that whole effect. And I blame the witch effects in Black Witch 2: Book Of Secrets, whole heartedly for that. That’s a fair comparison, actually. I honestly thought we had a BW2 style disaster on our hands. We don’t.
I’m calling it that this is by far the best Paranormal Activity movie.
I can’t say everyone will curl up in the cinema, in a fetal ball, and bite their finger to stop them jumping. That’s just my strategy. But it’s as unnerving as the first one – and those that were brave enough to watch it at night (Shame on you, MC. Shame on you), will know it could have an affect.
The scenes where nothing happen are in many ways the worst. Because you are waiting for something to happen.
By the sixth or seventh late night, the audience were groaning. I took that as a compliment. It was the sort of groan, that meant they didn’t want to watch what was going to happen.
My suggestion is avoid IMDB on this one. (My wife, Mrs T, started looking at the parental guidance section of Exorcist the other day, as we were watching it. I hate to take the i-phone off her… talk about ruining the fun!)
Just go in thinking it is a brand new family, who after a home invasion, get security cameras put in.
That way, you will get plenty of surprises. And that’s where my Godfather comment isn’t so random.
What they do narratively here, is borderline genius. So much so, that Quentin Tarantino would probably cream himself. And I mean that as a compliment.
There have been some brilliant reviews on here for Halloween. Thanks to Phil for letting me vent a bit of my John Carpenter love, with my own.
But have you noticed a pattern? Most are for older films. The sort you’ll dig out on DVD – or maybe Bluey, and see if it stands the test of time.
This? This is a genuinely frightening film, played large on the cinema screen. And, first film apart, it’s original. How often can you say that?
