• Director: Tod Williams
• With: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Molly Ephraim, Brian Boland, Sprague Grayden, Seth Ginsberg, William Juan Prieto, Jackson Xenia Prieto, Vivis Collombetti
• Duration: 1h31 (extended 1h38)
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Rating: 7/10

Review:

Paranormal Activity 2 is the second in the series (actually third, if you count the Japanese version which is canon to this series!) in which found footage camera material show the uprising of a demon in the household of Kristi and Daniel Rey. Kristi is the sister of Katie, who is the woman in the first movie that is being haunted by the malevolent demon, leading to her boyfriend’s, Micah, death.

But this movie is actually a prequel and a movie that is parallel to the first Paranormal Activity movie.

After a burglary in their house, strange things occur. lights switch on and off, things move on their own, doors slam, kitchen drawers and cupboards are flung wide open, the dog starts barking at nothing at all… Daniel decides to have security cams hung around the house and outside, in order to protect his family. Kati in the meantime gives birth to Hunter, their son. Daniel has a daughter from a previous marriage, Ali. At first she thinks the occurrences are thrilling but soon she becomes victim to a presence and her fear starts. Especially when Kati starts acting weird and Hunter seems to be the main object of this demon, she wants to try and stop it somehow. Their housekeeper, Martine, felt something wrong but no one believed her and they fired her for it. But now she may be the only one able to protect them.

After seeing the first movie, this one felt a little flat as nothing much really happened in the first half of the movie and only the last fifteen minutes are truly scary, apart from one really loud jumpscare before those last fifteen minutes. Hence why I only rated it a 7 out of 10. What these movies do obtain (which is their goal of course) is that you remain in suspense during the entire film waiting for something scary to happen. And often it’s when you least expect it…

Connecting this movie to the first one by telling the story from Katie’s sister side and having her experience the same problems is something that will be explored and explained more in the next movie, which is a prequel to the first and this one. But the past is mentioned by Kristi and Katie, only they don’t remember a lot of it…

I do love this franchise, albeit not every movie as much as another. The first one was a surprise, all that came after was rehashing the same formula and put a new spin on it or exploring the lore just a little further. But I think it’s good to watch them all, so to better understand this demon and to try and explain the ending of this movie!