In honor of the Halloween season and to keep up with Prank Week, this week’s review is a movie review of Paranormal Activity 2!
If you’ve already seen our Top 10 Obscure Horror Movies list then you already know that most sequels and remakes fall flat and far from the original. Some unfortunate examples would be anything after the first Final Destination, Blair Witch Project, Friday the 13th, just to name a few. Luckily Paranormal Activity 2 doesn’t add itself to this list. I came into this movie cautiously optimistic and walked away slightly shaky and doubting everything creak in my house!
First let me say the theatrical ending for the first Paranormal SUCKED! I said it- it sucked. It’s a classic example of directors dumbing down their original endings. Note to directors- give American audiences more credit! If you have seen both movies you know the theatrical ending for PA1 does not match what happens in PA2. The ending you need to see is the alternate one that makes an appearance in all the trailers (but is suspiciously absent from the theatrical release. Check your DVD/BluRay). For those of you who haven’t seen the first, no worries. You don’t need to have see it to understand anything from the 2nd but if you have you get an added bonus at the end.
The PA movies are very easy to spoil so in order to spare you I’m going to do a brief overview of the film. Check the Pros/Cons section for tips on who should/should not see the movie.
PA1 is well known for its great sound mixing and hand held footage scenes (PA2 has a night vision scene in the end that rivals its match, Spanish film REC) and PA2 has no shortage of them. In fact, it takes everything that works from the first and explodes it 3x across your screen. There is an entire family including a dog instead of just 2 characters and we get the added benefit of watching the events unfold over the many security cams installed. Night falls and things (big, menacing, heavy sounding things) get moving but don’t think you’re safe in the daylight. One scene in broad daylight ended with the entire theater shouting out and me getting covered in spilled popcorn from my neighbor. It’s intense!
While I loved this film, check the pros and cons for some insight into who won’t like it.
