Paranormal Activity 2 has an upper hand over PA with its vastly greater budget, yet doesn’t use it to a good enough effect, turning out another poor performance.
It’s quite tragic this film was so bad as it has some pretty good elements. The film provides a fantastic link to its predecessor, showing what happened to the sister of Katie (the lead in the first film) and her family. This gives a greater understanding as to why the demon haunted Katie and Micah, creating an interesting and disturbing tale in conjunction with the first film, with enough being left vague to leave an air of mystery.
The best part of the film was the ending sequence, which used a Blair Witch Project-style shaky cam to deliver an exceptional finale, as well as showing some of the events that occurred post-PA. Also, the use of multiple cameras rather than a single camera helped the film show events all over the house.
However, these points do not redeem PA2, as there is much wrong with the film. The characters are in no way likeable and the child appears to grow up too quickly (going from a new-born to a few months old in a badly done montage). Characters names are hard to pick up, with one character changing names from Kristi to Kirsty and back again.
PA2 takes a long time to build up to anything good. Though this turns out to be worthwhile, it still took too long for any good advancement in plot and throughout the majority of the film the audience feels bored and cannot be fully immersed. This is combined with lazy jump scares that detract from the psychological element of the film. In fact, some seem funny rather than scary, with many people in the cinema laughing at the ridiculous effects.
Though better than its predecessor for plot, albeit less scary, it just doesn’t deliver where it should. The best points of the film come within the last 10 minutes, leaving 81 minutes of boredom.
Final Verdict: 3/10
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