When I saw Paranormal Activity, I thought it was a decent horror film whose hype got blown out of proportion. It was sort of clever, but it wasn't especially entertaining or scary.
A year later, Paranormal Activity 2 comes along, and I actually think this one might have lived up to the hype the first one got. Maybe not completely, given how people were raving about it like it was the greatest horror movie ever made. But close. And why? Because shit actually happens in this one.
Paranormal Activity is essentially just one long tease that leads up to a final moment that I thought was pretty underwhelming. Paranormal Activity 2 is somewhat similar, but it gives you enough creepy moments and one legitimately awesome "Gotcha! Moment" (as Roger Ebert derisively refers to it) that I don't think it's just better than the first one, but actually far superior.
Spoilers follow...
There were two things about this film that I hated. First, the card at the beginning, where Paramount thanks the "family of the deceased" for the footage in the film. Paranormal Activity did something similar, this is what I wrote, and it still holds true:
As far as other first-person camera horror films go, Cloverfield also ran such a disclaimer, and I'm pretty sure Quarantine did as well. Look, Hollywood, we know these films aren't actually real footage that you acquired, and decided to put up on the big screen. You don't need to let us know how they supposedly came to be in your possession.
I don't even understand why anyone thinks this is a good idea. Can you imagine how sick a movie studio would have to be to get their hands on footage of people being murdered--even by something supernatural--and release it as a film? Not even Disney would be that evil. Also, once again, they're telling us ahead of time that the main characters get killed. Why would I want to know this at the start of the film?
Second, I wasn't wild about the explanation that the demon was after Katie and Kristi because their grandmother made a deal to sacrifice their family's first born son for wealth and power. I guess it was nice to get some reason why all this was going on, but I'm not sure this really fits the tone of the films.
Everything else, though, is pretty good. I liked how the film seamlessly serves as both prequel and sequel, I liked that some annoying questions from the first one were answered (i.e., the photo in the attic), and I loved the fact that there were some genuinely creepy moments. The part where all the kitchen drawers open at once was the Gotcha! Moment I thought was really well done, and there were plenty of others, too. Especially the subtle ones, like the pool cleaner silently moving around or Kristi sitting next to Hunter's crib one moment, and disappearing the next.
The ending was much better than the first film's, although, it seemed like the filmmakers really wussed out by having Ali not be home for Katie to snap her neck or whatever. What, killing off annoying teenagers is no longer allowed in horror films?
It's pretty much a lock that there'll be a Paranormal Activity 3, but I hope they don't feel the need to follow up on Katie and Hunter. I'm perfectly satisfied with the idea that evil won this round. Move on to another family and another demon, ghost, etc. It seems like it'd be a good way to extend the life expectancy of a franchise that might otherwise get really stale, really fast.
Script: B-
Acting: B
Gore: D
Overall: B-
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