Paranormal Activity 2 was announced in 2009, shortly after the general release of the first film; Paramount was that convinced that they had a bankable series on their hands (see also what I said about the ending of the first movie being such obvious sequel bait). The movie also stands out in that it's sometimes referred to as a "parallel sequel" to the first movie - some events take place before the events of the first film, some take place at the same time as the first film, and some take place after (although as the two films do intersect, it's technically not "parallel"). So technically Paranormal Activity 2 is both a prequel and a sequel.
So this time around we're following the Rey family - Daniel, his teenage daughter Ali, his new wife Kristi and their new baby Hunter as they move into their new home in California. the connection to the first film is that Kristi is Katie's sister, and indeed we get little cameos from both her and Micah in the film once or twice. After their house is apparently broken into and ransacked (but nothing is taken) Daniel installs CCTV throughout the house for security, and so it isn't long before the cameras are capturing all the supernatural goings-on: from the minor - the pool cleaner removing itself from the pool every night - to the far more disturbing - an invisible force trying to pull Hunter from his cot at night. This time around the haunting seems focused on Kristi and Hunter, and as things get worse more of the possible background to all of this is revealed. But can it all be stopped before it's too late?
Being (technically) a sequel, Paranormal Activity 2 was in the situation of needing to deliver bigger and better shocks and effects than the first film, while still remaining true to the film's origins - no small task considering the reaction that the original Paranormal Activity received. So this time, instead of one unwieldy and mostly static camera that mostly covered one room, we now have multiple fixed cameras throughout the house so that we can follow the action in multiple rooms and various angles. We also get an uptick in the intensity of the supernatural goings-on; now we see furniture moving by itself and people and dogs getting attacked by invisible forces (the entity at the centre of all of this not being very fond of dogs, apparently). For the most part these evolutions of the series work well, although there are a couple of missteps.
The exposition dump is one of these missteps. Now it's fine for a film to reveal some details on the background of what is going on - even more so in a sequel. But the way it's done in Paranormal Activity 2 that's the problem. Suspicious of everything that's going on, teenage daughter Ali heads to Google and the explanation is pretty much the first hit. Now not only is this movie cliche convenient, it also takes away some of the mystery and dread of the situation, and not just because it's so easily discovered. Sometimes things are scarier when you don't know why they're happening; like whatever supernatural force haunting our protagonists decided to do so randomly out of boredom.
The second problem I had with Paranormal Activity 2 is the way they choose to deal with the problem/haunting. First of all, in the early parts of the film they have a Hispanic housekeeper, who of course is the first one to sense something is amiss and who ends up getting fired after she tried to cleanse the house with burning sage (zero tolerance towards funny smells in the house?). When things inevitably go south though, they bring her back, and her solution (spoilers for those recently recovered from comas again) is to pass the haunting on to someone else - specifically Katie. And Daniel Rey goes along with this with barely any hesitation. now an argument can be made that he's naturally more concerned with his wife and child's safety at this point and it's more of a Sophie's Choice situation, but even after he's done it he shows absolutely no interest in what he's done - Kristi and Hunter are fine, so it's just not his problem any more. He just doesn't give a crap that, by what he knows, he's damned his sister-in-law to demonic possession. It makes it very difficult to maintain any sympathy for him and his family after that, which we're supposed to have as they're the protagonists.
Aside from those two points though, Paranormal Activity 2 is still a good film. the atmosphere of dread is still there, heightened by the dramatic irony now as we already have a good idea of what is going to happen this time around. Following the rules of sequels too, the movie also ups his game with the ghostly happenings while still refraining from going hog wild with the CGI - my personal favourite is the scene where every cupboard and drawer flies open and throws its contents at Kristi when she's in the kitchen, which I'm pretty sure had my flying two feet off my seat. Overall, Paranormal Activity 2 is a good sequel, and manages to tie up the ends of the two films pretty neatly. Not that that was going to stop anyone from going forwards anyway...
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