Friday, October 22, 2010

Catch A Flick Spooktacular - PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2


Oh boy! It's good. It's real good! Just got home from a 10pm advance screening and it was one of my best theater experiences of the year. I'm still a little freaked out so that's why I'm writing this immediately to shake off the nerves a little bit.

So, I'm just going to say that these Paranormal Activity movies are going to be the next horror movie craze. (Which is about time, the torture porn genre has overstayed it's welcome). The fist one everybody knows was a smash, this second one should make twice as much and it very well should. It's really good!

I never reviewed the first film so here are a few thoughts about that one first. For what PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is about the film works very well. The movie is meant to be real footage but fails ever so slightly due to that you can tell these people on camera are clearly dramatically acting. It's a little much at times. Don't get me wrong, the film is scary and has some nice spooky moments. I really love the final scare and again it really lets the audience know you just watched a movie.

The ending of the first film really had me interested in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2. I was game when the trailer lets you know the girl from the first one returns and it's not completely the same thing over again but with different people. Now, seeing that this is a horror movie I'm not going to spoil anything for you because what would be the fun in that! I will tell you what we're dealing with story wise.

The sequel focus's on the first films sister and her family, her husband, stepdaughter, and a baby boy. It's all about little baby Hunter. To avoid a convoluted rambling rant I'll put it simply that "paranormal activity" runs in the family. Which is sort of hinted at in the first film anyway. You want more than that? "They" want the baby and that's all I'm saying.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 succeeds because it does what a horror sequel is meant to do and that's up the ante of the original! It's scarier and the story is better too! In the first movie I was freaked out, however; at the same time wondering how they did some of the special effects? The acting also took me out of the moment. With part 2 I was more invested and less concerned about how the filmmakers pulled off some of the things they did? Unfortunately some of the bad acting is still present.
My only real complaint is the ending gets messy. Shaky cam and that last fright is a little too familiar and weak. I'm willing to bet they shot the ending first and built the rest of the movie around that!

Better than the original. Highly Recommended!

No comments: