Paranormal Activity 2

Proud parents of a baby boy are motivated to install a high tech security system in their house after an apparent break-in leaves their house vandalized. Equipped with cameras recording all events throughout their house and yard the couple, their teen daughter, and live in nanny feel safer– that is until strange events start disrupting the house. Upon review of their security tapes a modest amount of skepticism turns to all out fear as a demonic force begins to up the ante in it’s aggressiveness. Now the question becomes how to stay alive and clear their house, or is it already too late? Breaking with the conventional type of scares that so many Hollywood horror franchises have built our expectations on, Paranormal Activity 2 goes back to basics to remind us that it’s not what we see that’s always that scary; rather, it’s what we don’t see that can be scariest of all. And, with dramatic improvements on the producers methods to make things go bump in the night the film packs a real extra punch. Acting feels pretty genuine for the most part, and the humor between characters as we’re getting to know the principals also rings true. From a story line perspective this film dovetails nicely into the first Paranormal Activity film adding more depth to what we already know; but, given that it also serves as a pre-quel it also has the advantage that it can stand on it’s own. Best seen in a packed theatre for the full experience, if you’re looking for a good scare this weekend, don’t miss this one. Paranormal Activity 2 is rated R.