Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem.

Director:

Tod Williams

Writers:

Michael R. Perry (screenplay), Christopher Landon (screenplay)

Stars:

Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Molly Ephraim

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
David Bierend	...	Surveillance Camera Expert
Brian Boland	...	Daniel Rey
Molly Ephraim	...	Ali Rey
Katie Featherston	...	Katie
Seth Ginsberg	...	Brad
Sprague Grayden	...	Kristi Rey
William Juan Prieto	...	Hunter Rey
Jackson Xenia Prieto	...	Hunter Rey
Micah Sloat	...	Micah
Vivis Colombetti	...	Martine (as Vivis)

Storyline

Daniel Rey along with his wife, Kristi; daughter, Ali; toddler son, Hunter, and their dog, move to Carlsbad, California. A few days later their residence is broken into, however, nothing appears to be missing. In order to prevent re-occurrences, they install a number of security cameras that will record everything on a DVR. After they hire a Spanish-speaking nanny to look after Hunter, she informs them that there is something wrong in their house and performs prayers, much to the chagrin of Daniel, who lets her go. He will subsequently regret this decision as more inexplicable and strange incidents occur, with Ali concluding, after a research, that their house may be possessed by a demonic entity.

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Plot Keywords:

no music | supernatural horror | found footage | ends with text | text narration | 

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Taglines:

Demand it!

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and brief violent material

Did You Know?

Trivia

(at around 1h 16 mins) During the climax, immediately following when the power goes out in the house, there is a single, out of focus, frame of Hunter crawling in the street that quickly flashes on and off screen.

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Goofs

(at around 22 mins) When Martine runs from the kitchen to get Hunter, we see a cutting board with knives and some cut vegetables on the kitchen island. When she's walking around the kitchen with her smoking smudge stick, the cutting board and it's contents are gone. Then she leaves the kitchen with the smudge stick and goes to the foyer. Then the owners come home. When the camera angle switches back to where the kitchen is in the background, the cutting board is there again. As they all walk further into the house and the kitchen, the cutting board is still there in plain view.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Kristi Rey: Welcome home, Hunter, this is your house. Gonna look out that window. There's your front door.

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Crazy Credits

Sound effects from the film play over the end credits.

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Alternate Versions

There is a three minute long deleted scene where the power goes out and Hunter disappears from the house, but is found crawling outside the house on the street. The family leaves in a hurry for the rest of the night; the final shots of the scene show the house the next morning, unoccupied and in complete disarray. In the kitchen, the pans are still moving.

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Connections

Follows Paranormal Activity (2007)

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Soundtracks

The Downfall of Us All
Performed by A Day to Remember

User Reviews

Paranormal Activity 2 , Close but not quite enough.

Saw the movie today. Only a handful of people in the theatre but it was a 2:30 show.

Here goes......... I had some mixed feelings about PA2. I would sum it up as not quite good enough.

It's a decent flick but can't measure up to the original with the scares or the ending. Actually for me, the ending felt somewhat rushed and just wasn't that scary. Disturbing, yes. Scary? No. And the pace was a tad slow at times.

The film does in my opinion, an excellent job actually, at establishing the introduction of the characters and very nicely ties in the events of this film with PA though there are some unanswered questions.

Why if Katie's sister is having problems with things going all "paranormal" doesn't Katie then mention this while talking about it to Micah when filming during their paranormal events. And how did that burnt pic get into their attic? But I digress.

I had mixed reactions to the explaining as it were, of the demon's intent and motives outlined by the one of the character that actually uses their brain in this movie and does some investigative work.

I thought it an interesting twist that nicely tied the events of both movies through the obviously frustrated demon and ultimately using Katie to get the job done though it had some help from one character that ultimately involves betrayal. People should be talking about this.

One major nitpick?

The slow buildup up in tension never comes close to delivering anything to what PA did and I really let down with the general lack of overall good scare moments and just how few and far between the great ones there were.

I was hugely disappointed with this. My biggest nitpick of the movie.

The best ones take place in the kitchen and with the daughter on the couch. That entire sequence in the basement where the mother takes the baby, was annoying and fell flat. Not going to lie to you, that second kitchen scare got me though.

One of the few truly, good scare moments.

Also, the the scene with the daughter sleeping on the couch is another. Why, oh why, couldn't they have had more scenes like this? What she experienced was genuinely creepy. I just wished they had more of these types of scares throughout the movie.

It would have been brilliant. And what was the deal with the demon and the basement?

Unlike others, I found the acting was just fine in my books. I saw nothing that indicated lousy, unconvincing acting for the most part. Just a couple of parts that felt forced.

But for all the hype, I still walked away thinking that despite a great job of tying in the events and the overlap between both movies, that it felt like they struggled to come up with something fresh to scare us with this time.

And how can they possibly do a third PA with what happened at the end and the fate of several of the characters? Who gets haunted next?

The movie is going to be successful and I did enjoy most of it despite my nitpicks but still...... They dropped the ball somewhat.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Blog [South Korea] Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

22 October 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Paranormal Activity 2

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$40,678,424, 24 October 2010

Gross USA:

$84,752,907

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$177,512,032

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Solana Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 98 min (unrated director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS Dolby Surround 7.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1