PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2
RYAN: Paranormal Activity 2 didn’t screen for critics but it was Halloween and I was in the mood so I checked it out yesterday.
CAROLINE: And how was it?
RYAN: Well I was terribly annoyed by some A-hole in front of me who kept texting and each button he’d press on his phone beeped. I asked him to stop once and he did but resumed an hour later.
CAROLINE: That is Beyond Rangoon and unacceptable. So how was the movie?
RYAN: It was good. I mean, it was actually scary.
CAROLINE: That’s cool. We saw the first one together and it was just so slow and we felt like it didn’t live up to the hype.
RYAN: Totally. And I expected more of the same but this one actually picks up about a third of the way in and then maintains and is much creepier and freaky.
CAROLINE: So it’s heftier than just a lot of things going bump in the night?
RYAN: Yeah and it’s truly clever. It’s actually 95% a prequel to the first one which is neat because the original actors are in it and then the last 5% is what happened next, after the first film so it really spans the story.
CAROLINE: Does it explain some more about the first one too?
RYAN: Absolutely and it’s so effed up what happens. But I have to say one snarky thing.
CAROLINE: Honey, this is a safe place. Share.
RYAN: [laughs’ The girl from the first one who’s here again looks a lil chunkier to me now – though it’s supposed to be a prequel. And then when it shows brief footage of the first one you see how much thinner she was and then you see her again and it’s, like, whoa.
CAROLINE: You’d think the producers would have encouraged her to get back to the same weight.
RYAN: I didn’t see production notes so we may never know.
CAROLINE: Any other dish?
RYAN: It’s the same template – a haunting/possession seen through home movies and surveillance. The acting is all pretty good and it’s crazy how a film can still be compelling when almost entirely shot within the same, like, six frames.
CAROLINE: That is cool.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: Much better than Saw 3D. And even much better than the first Paranormal Activity. It got me and I enjoyed it.
— RATING —
