"Paranormal Activity 2" Review

"Paranormal Activity 2" is an unnecessary sequel that tries too hard.

The movie is inappropriately named in that it is technically a prequel rather than a sequel. It is about Katie's sister, Kristi Rey (Sprague Grayden, "White Collar"), who is actually mentioned in the first film. When Kristi and Katie were children, they both felt the demonic presence, and it went off and on for a while.

In this movie, Kristi is living with her infant son, her step-daughter Ali (Molly Ephraim, "Last Man Standing"), and her husband Daniel (Brian Boland). They experience a break-in at the beginning, and they decide to get security cameras. This film is a combination of footage from those cameras and from a home video camera used by Ali.

As more weird things happen, they realize that the break in is probably something else entirely. Kristi is starting to suspect that the demonic presence is coming back to haunt her. Daniel does not seem to believe her. Whenever Kristi or Ali try to prove what is going on by showing tapes, Daniel blows it off as the wind.

Ali figures out through some research a possible reason they are being haunted. Without revealing anything, she is correct about it, and this actually connects this with the first one in an interesting way.

Though the two movies connect, this movie was unnecessary. The first one was obviously not made with more films in mind. It is a found footage film, which means someone shot all the activity in the house. The fact that someone else was doing the same thing right before is a little ridiculous when you think about it.

It seems like in the making of this film, the writers and producers had to rack their brain to come up with some way they can continue the franchise. What they thought up is a movie that is bigger than the first one. They had a bigger budget with $3,000,000, and they decided to get a bigger cast. Instead of making it about one couple, it is about a family. Instead of having footage from only one camera, they managed to write more into the script.

That is precisely why this movie is not nearly as good as the first one. The original "Paranormal Activity" proved Charmin Ultra's catchphrase that "Less is more." There are only two characters who the audience gets to know very well. It is a more intimate experience. It gives off a sense of loneliness, and that adds to the horror.

The one camera also makes it much better in the first one in that if something happens off screen, it is not recorded by anything. The couple has to investigate the aftermath, and it adds more mystery.

I also had a problem with the character Daniel. He is very annoying. He brushes off everything until the very end when it is pretty much too late. The man comes off as overly insensitive. I think this has to do with him being badly written as well as badly acted. In the first film, Micah is also doubtful of everything, but he is more charming and realistic. This might have been because the man who played him was a better actor all around.

I have to give this movie credit, however. It is very interesting to see how it connects with the first film. Even though it was unnecessary, it needed to be made because the producers wanted to make a lot of money from it. With this in mind, what the writers came up with was actually pretty interesting, and there were some legitimately creepy parts. However, the movie still felt like a remake of "Paranormal Activity" with more cameras and more people.

I give this film 2 out of 5 stars. It has its good moments and it is interesting to see the way it connects everything. However, the film as a whole has already been done before, and it was done better. Just watch the first movie.

Content: Rated R. There are a couple scenes with sexual content. There is no nudity, though it shows a woman in a bath naturally censored with bubbles. There is moderate language with several "F" words. There is a little violence especially at the end. There is a little blood at the end, but it is a stain on a character's shirt.

For more details on what I base my ratings off of, visit http://criticalchristopher.blogspot.com/2014/01/defining-rating-criteria.html