Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

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Day 80 of Sobriety.

I watched this the day after watching the first Paranormal Activity film, so I guess this is really a comment on both of them. I wont say much about the plots, because I imagine that most people are familiar with these films by now, but they are both "found footage" films that document the intrusion of a malevolent evil presences on two different households.

I had seen them both before, around the time they were released, but that was over a decade ago now (fifteen years in the case of the first one), and I couldn’t remember much about them at all. I did remember that had I found them pretty scary back then, though, and feeling like I wanted to actually be scared by a film for the first time in a long time, I bought some extremely cheap ex-rental blue rays of the first five films in the series.

The only thing that had stuck in my mind with any clarity was the very final scene of the first movie, but this time I watched the “alternate ending” version that was on the blue ray, and I must say, I think it is a considerably better and far more disturbing ending.

I don’t know why but these films really hit the “scary spot” for me. For example, the scenes in the first movie where Katie is just standing in the dark looking at her boyfriend as he sleeps—for hours—is terrifying to me, and the scenes in the second film, where the baby is left “home alone” with the malevolent presence are also extremely disturbing. I think I might have actually found the second movie more frightening than the first, probably because it had that aspect of a baby being in jeopardy.

It is a definite case of “less is more,” as there are no leering, snarling monsters or anything like that, just a feeling of gradually encroaching malice and evil. Apart from a few conceits, most of what is shown on the screen looks completely believable. The realism means that some slightly swaying pots hanging on hooks in the kitchen are more frightening than any number of jump-scare boogeymen. I think it is the intangibility of the threat (at least in the initial stages of the films) that makes it so frightening. There is not much you could do to combat something that manifests itself so subtly.

The way that the sequel segues into the first film is also handled very skillfully. And I like the way, particularly in the second film, that we are allowed to gradually learn more about the characters and their background in a very natural, unforced way that keeps the “found footage” format believable. Unlike much of the deluge of “found footage” films that came in their wake, these films show some respect for the intelligence of their audience—avoiding unrealistic exposition or impossible shots that shatter the “found footage” illusion.

I have read that there is a steady drop in quality as the series progresses, but I’m still really looking forward to watching the rest.

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