The horror film Paranormal Activity 2 is directed by Tod Williams and stars Brian Boland, Sprague Grayden, and Molly Ephraim. The film takes place in a house near San Diego, California.
The horror sequel starts off with the Rey family coming home and finding that their house was broken into. After doing some investigation they discover that nothing had been taken except one of Kristi's (Grayden) necklaces that was given to her by her sister. Dan (Boland) makes the decision to insert surveillance cameras into their household for future protection. In the family there is also Dan's daughter from before the marriage, Ali (Ephraim), and an infant one year old son Hunter. As the film goes on the members of the family believe that their house is possibly haunted by a demon due to all the strange events happening to the house and themselves during the night...
The screenplay for this horror box office record breaker was by Michael R. Perry, Christopher B. Landon, and Tom Pabst. The group of screenwriters made a successful sequel when by looking to the past we can see how sequels to films like The Blair Witch Project were absolutely terrible because they did not follow the same filming format as the original. Most of the scares were basically just long pause and loud sound to get a jump out of the audience but unlike the first one the fear does not come home with you. The characters in the screenplay were all very realistic except I thought it was strange how Dan Rey installed surveillance cameras in his house and was always so reluctant to look at them. Personally I did not like the ending because of how abruptly it came to a conclusion. It all makes sense in everything but I prefer more than two minutes for a film to wrap itself up.
Tod Williams directed the film and he did a solid job following up the original because like the writers he kept it low budget and just in a normal house. All the little jump scares he pulled off very well by keeping up the suspense and picking the right camera angles for the shot to come from. Williams got solid performances from his actors since everyone was very realistic and no one really sounded like they were acting. Did he do as good of a job as Oren Peli did with the original? I'm going to have to answer no to that because the original was just so much more suspenseful and I thought about the original for days after leaving the theatre while this one I barely think about.
I thought the editing by Gregory Plotkin was a bit strange. It was fine during all the suspenseful horror sequences and I liked what he did with the surveillance cameras going from the pool to the front of the house to the kitchen but I did not like what he did with the everyday conversations. He just cut in the middle of a conversation to a more important part in the conversation that seems to have taken place about three seconds later. It is partly Tod Williams' fault for not correcting this problem but the two of them should of decided to show a flowing conversation instead of awkwardly skipping through it to get to the main points.
The acting for the film was pretty good since most of these actors have not been in many lead roles. Brian Boland probably gave the worst performance of the family members because all he did was basically yell at the other family members to not believe in demons. Now I can see where he is coming from but I think he should have laid his lines down in a more sentimental way instead of constantly yelling at his family. I'm sure many people would act like he did if a situation like this occurred and he in no way was bad he was just not as good as he could have possibly been. He also probably had the least screen time out of all the leads. Sprague Grayden played Kristi Rey, the mother of the family. She gave a fine performance because she was very good at screaming at the right parts and I don't see how a normal person would not react the same way in her situation. I'm sure she studied Katie Featherson's performance in the first one so she could act similarly since their roles are basically identical. Molly Ephraim gave the best performance in the film due to as all the other actors she was very believable. She was probably there during the most scary parts of the film and like Grayden I don't see how she could have acted any differently. Her facial expressions and just the tone of her voice were just spot on.
Compared to the original this one is definitely worse. But what is good about this film compared to most sequels is that someone can watch this and would be able to understand everything that has happened. The scares are much weaker than the original as well as the comedic relief was much weaker than the original. Again I am glad that the director and writers stayed so loyal to the original though because this film could have been absolutely awful. Overall I give this film a 6/10. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror films, has seen the original, or likes low budget documentary like films. See the original though because it is one of the best horror films of the past decade.
The horror sequel starts off with the Rey family coming home and finding that their house was broken into. After doing some investigation they discover that nothing had been taken except one of Kristi's (Grayden) necklaces that was given to her by her sister. Dan (Boland) makes the decision to insert surveillance cameras into their household for future protection. In the family there is also Dan's daughter from before the marriage, Ali (Ephraim), and an infant one year old son Hunter. As the film goes on the members of the family believe that their house is possibly haunted by a demon due to all the strange events happening to the house and themselves during the night...
The screenplay for this horror box office record breaker was by Michael R. Perry, Christopher B. Landon, and Tom Pabst. The group of screenwriters made a successful sequel when by looking to the past we can see how sequels to films like The Blair Witch Project were absolutely terrible because they did not follow the same filming format as the original. Most of the scares were basically just long pause and loud sound to get a jump out of the audience but unlike the first one the fear does not come home with you. The characters in the screenplay were all very realistic except I thought it was strange how Dan Rey installed surveillance cameras in his house and was always so reluctant to look at them. Personally I did not like the ending because of how abruptly it came to a conclusion. It all makes sense in everything but I prefer more than two minutes for a film to wrap itself up.
Tod Williams directed the film and he did a solid job following up the original because like the writers he kept it low budget and just in a normal house. All the little jump scares he pulled off very well by keeping up the suspense and picking the right camera angles for the shot to come from. Williams got solid performances from his actors since everyone was very realistic and no one really sounded like they were acting. Did he do as good of a job as Oren Peli did with the original? I'm going to have to answer no to that because the original was just so much more suspenseful and I thought about the original for days after leaving the theatre while this one I barely think about.
I thought the editing by Gregory Plotkin was a bit strange. It was fine during all the suspenseful horror sequences and I liked what he did with the surveillance cameras going from the pool to the front of the house to the kitchen but I did not like what he did with the everyday conversations. He just cut in the middle of a conversation to a more important part in the conversation that seems to have taken place about three seconds later. It is partly Tod Williams' fault for not correcting this problem but the two of them should of decided to show a flowing conversation instead of awkwardly skipping through it to get to the main points.
The acting for the film was pretty good since most of these actors have not been in many lead roles. Brian Boland probably gave the worst performance of the family members because all he did was basically yell at the other family members to not believe in demons. Now I can see where he is coming from but I think he should have laid his lines down in a more sentimental way instead of constantly yelling at his family. I'm sure many people would act like he did if a situation like this occurred and he in no way was bad he was just not as good as he could have possibly been. He also probably had the least screen time out of all the leads. Sprague Grayden played Kristi Rey, the mother of the family. She gave a fine performance because she was very good at screaming at the right parts and I don't see how a normal person would not react the same way in her situation. I'm sure she studied Katie Featherson's performance in the first one so she could act similarly since their roles are basically identical. Molly Ephraim gave the best performance in the film due to as all the other actors she was very believable. She was probably there during the most scary parts of the film and like Grayden I don't see how she could have acted any differently. Her facial expressions and just the tone of her voice were just spot on.
Compared to the original this one is definitely worse. But what is good about this film compared to most sequels is that someone can watch this and would be able to understand everything that has happened. The scares are much weaker than the original as well as the comedic relief was much weaker than the original. Again I am glad that the director and writers stayed so loyal to the original though because this film could have been absolutely awful. Overall I give this film a 6/10. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror films, has seen the original, or likes low budget documentary like films. See the original though because it is one of the best horror films of the past decade.