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Sunday, October 24, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Paranormal Activity 2
"There's Something Really Wrong With..."
One of the camera views seen in "Paranormal Activity 2", directed by Tod
Williams. The film opened on Friday.
Paramount
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Sunday,
October 24, 2010
"Paranormal Activity" burst onto the movie
theater stage like a thunderbolt about a year ago, jolting audiences in
frightful bursts and sleepless nights. An overnight sensation, Oren Peli's
film scared up more than $100 million in U.S.-Canada box office business,
spawning "Paranormal Activity 2", which opened two days ago.
Despite the numeral designation, Tod Williams directs a prequel rather than a
sequel to Mr. Peli's 2009 film. Mr. Williams is more invested in the
context of prologue, if not outright explanation, of the mysterious events
surrounding a demon-like presence that wreaked havoc in a San Diego house in
Fall 2006, having originated further up the California coast to Carlsbad and
into the Rey household in the summer of 2006.
Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Daniel Rey (Brian Boland) are married with a baby.
They have a stepchild. Kristi is the younger sister of Katie (Katie Featherston). Unlike the near-nonstop verbal sparring between lovers Katie
and Micah in the first film, Kristi and Daniel are relatively amenable beings.
Level-headed Kristi and her teen stepdaughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) hear strange
noises and see or feel peculiar things in the house. Daniel, a
self-centered and rash soul, is more skeptical. Is there a break-in or is
something else going on?
"Paranormal Activity 2" is a more conventional horror film than its predecessor,
employing devices and clichés familiar to most audiences. There's the
housekeeper who appears odd but may be onto something. There's the horny,
jokey teenage boy. There's the baby at the mercy of events. The dog
that barks and wails hysterically. The film is more observational than
documentarian, with its multiple camera views and running clocks, and its pacing
is almost unchanged from Mr. Peli's film, which its credits declare that it is
based on.
The chills haven't dissipated either. Red herring moments are often more
scary and suspenseful than the select jolts of fear hurled at us. There
are scares, but nothing new or remarkable is presented in the script by Michael
R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst. (If anything, Mr. Williams'
film pays more attention to itself than it should.)
Not that it matters especially, but we hardly know what it is the Reys do.
They, like some suburbanites, are disconnected from neighbors. Caring
about the Reys is a tough endeavor. They seem like a bland, "normal"
family, though with relatively few issues and scant emotional camaraderie.
You get the feeling that they are a collection of strawmen and women waiting to
be knocked down by the atmospherics the audience anticipates being engulfed in.
Perhaps the multiple characters and editing by Gregory Plotkin contributed to
this lack of feeling and staidness. "Paranormal Activity 2" often relies
on rapid edits. The more the camera moves however, the more static the
film is. There's little time to assess or get comfortable with the
characters or their relationships. Consequently -- unlike the daily
intimacies of Katie and Micah -- the audience is kept at arms' length.
While "Paranormal Activity 2" literally left me holding my stomach, I felt
cheated by the lack of commitment to the material by the actors. The
filmmakers had opportunities to shake things up. They don't. The
film isn't smart but it is obvious, and in this way it diminishes the currency
the first film had. You hope now that the filmmakers and collaborators
will get out of celluloid dodge while the going is good, but the box office
receipts they will reap won't let them. We'll be here next Halloween eve
or thereafter for a third go around.
With: Micah Sloat, Tim Clemens.
"Paranormal Activity 2"
is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for language and brief violent material. The film's
running time is one hour and 31 minutes.
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