Monday, February 14, 2011

Eye Candy #508 - "Paranormal Activity 2"

Paranormal Activity 2:  A bit of a different sequel, where the plot runs concurrently with the goings-on from the first film, as it endeavors to explain what happened to Katie and Micah from part one.  Katie’s sister Kristi, her husband Daniel, stepdaughter Ali, and newborn son Hunter move into a nice house in the ‘burbs near her sister.  After what they think is a break-in, they install security cameras in the house and begin to capture various phenomenon on film, including inanimate objects moving themselves and a possible demonic possession.  Shot in the same sort of faux-amateur style as the original (minus most of the shaky handi-cam, given that all the security cams are mounted), and still very low-tech, there are some spooky bits here as the family comes to terms with something that wants the baby boy for its own reasons.   Surprisingly, indie director Tod Williams is helming this (and its announced sequel) and he does a good job not recycling most of the tricks from the first one.  And while the back story introduced is a little on the hokey side and needs more fleshing out, this is still an entertaining flick.  A much larger budget this time around (the first was shot for something like $15k and grossed over $100 million; this time it's $2.5 million), I’m sure the studios were happy with the performance of this one, as well.  Cast is still mostly unknowns (Sprague Grayden as Kristi, being the exception), but does well.  I liked it.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”

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