Paranormal Activity 2. Are You Ready For This?

I have to admit the first paranormal activity movie scared the crap out of me. Not many movies have done that. I can only think of this and the Blair Witch Project that used fear to scare the shit out of me. The use of hand held cameras made the whole thing seem more authentic and not actually seeing what these evil beings were made the whole thing scarier. Playing on one's fear is the greatest scare tactic invented. Jaws never revealed the monster till the end. In Psycho we never knew that it was Norman Bates dressed in women's clothing. People are scared more when they are not faced with the monster. Last year a little movie called Paranormal Activity made for only $10000 dollars made a killing at the box office and scared people senseless (if anyone disagrees with you they are definitely lying) telling the story about Katie and Micha and their adventure with the paranormal. The movie was so clever with using a hand held camera whilst tapping into fears of things that go bump in the night. I am not going to spoil the ending of the first one, but it's freaky. All I can say is I hope you are prepared for round two, cause it's out and waiting for you to go again, but this time it adds a new spin on the first one.

The sequel is actually set 60 days before the events of the first one (so none of the climax has actually happened from the first movie). Katie is still herself, and Micha is still alive (oops did I just spoil the first one sorry). Katie's sister has just had her son and has brought him home with her husband and stepdaughter. Katie and her sister are very tight, and have a secret from their past they are unwilling to let anyone else know about. However, they may want to keep it a secret, but the house and whatever else is in it doesn't. When the family come home to find their house broken into they go about setting up hidden camera's to keep an eye on their property. What they capture is not exactly criminal related. Katie's sister stars to hear things that go bump in the night. A pot drop, a toy move, a door slam. Sound familiar. Well it should, this is paranormal activity and what happens next is the start of the franchise that once again is going to make you jump and scream (as demonstrated by the girls in the row in front of me) .

The team behind the first one are back, however the direction has been placed in the hands of Tod Williams. With a bigger budget, the scares come big and fast. All the actors deliver the scares well, and with no musical score leading up to creepy encounters it lets the audience jump out of their seat and nearly pass out from waiting for the next scare to come. The new story is clever (and I won't spoil it here) and explains things a little more why the events in the first one actually are happening with Katie and Micha. The sound effects are what make these movies. It is amazing what loud noise can do to the senses to scare a person. A loud bang can make a whole audience jump and the director uses this to his advantage for great effect.

However, here is where the problems lie for Paranormal Activity 2. I felt like I have seen it all before in the first one. Don't get me wrong I still jumped out of my seat, as many of the scares are so well done once again, but it felt like I knew they were coming. The start is so long and drawn out, that the final 20 minutes is like one scare over and over and nearly gives you a heart attack instead of leading up to a climax as the first one did. I felt also sometimes like the actors were reading a script, while the first one seemed to flow a lot better. It felt a little repetitive and I would have liked to see it grow to a huge climax like the first one did. For a movie as well with a bigger budget, sometimes the effects really looked cheap and there are only so many times a door can slam shut that can actually scare the audience.

Let me put it this way, if you want to be scared like the first one then go see it. If you want to know why these things happen to this family, see it. And if you want to know what becomes of Katie go see it. But just don't expect to have the same feeling after you watch this one compared to the first. I must admit the first one I could probably never watch again, and even the cover gives me chills. With this one, the scares were there, but the cinema is where they stayed. I really wouldn't brag about this one as much as the first one, but I would recommend it over the other garbage that passes for scary movies these days. All I will say is that I wouldn't be surprised if the franchise had at least one more left in it. I for one would be interested if third time would be lucky and if they could deliver the scares once again. 7.5/10