Paranormal Activity 2
Luckily avoids the misjudgements of its closest relative, the stupendously awful Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows by sticking to the format of candid footage and plausibly connected characters.

Part of the thrill of Paranormal Activity’s debut last autumn was that no-one had a very clear idea of what to expect from it. Everyone heard rumours that it was scary, but it looked so budget that this hardly seemed credible. The surprise that followed was a nasty one, but in the best possible way.

A sequel therefore has two handicaps from the word go: firstly, the audience already knows what the jeopardy is, and how any havoc will be wrought. Secondly, the success of the original film was so great that the law of diminishing returns seems almost inevitable.

The makers of Paranormal Activity 2 luckily avoid the misjudgements of its closest relative, the stupendously awful Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows by sticking to the format of candid footage and plausibly connected characters, rather than busting out pointlessly traditional camerawork and a host of hateful new leads. This is probably where following the lead of innovators comes in handy: you can learn from their mistakes.

This time the story is centred on another married couple, Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Dan (Brian Boland), who are raising a young family. Dan has a teenage daughter Ali (Molly Ephriam) who gets on well with her step-family and furnishes the general milieu with youthful energy. Baby newcomer Hunter is the focal point of the family’s attentions, and of the inevitable sinister goings on.

They all live in a vast house, complete with a pool, and inhabit the same world of middle class contentment as their cinematic predecessors Katie and Micah. It turns out that this is a prequel more than a sequel – Katie is Kristi’s sister, and she reprises her role throughout. Things have not yet taken a demonic turn in the timescale, but it isn’t long before they do. Part of the rebuilding of tension occurs because of what the audience already knows about Katie and Micah, and the interweaving of the two stories into one family narrative makes a virtue of our familiarity with the basic plot that underpins both movies.

Paranormal Activity 2 features effective creepy tricks and teases, and tension-breaking laughs punctuate the gently ominous pacing of the first hour. Things accelerate at the end, and the climactic scenes are as chilling as you could wish – people in the audience were cowering away from the screen, clutching at each other’s sleeves, and generally freaking out.

The creators handle the elastic nature of tension well, avoid fixing what isn’t broken and deliver the scares, but the plot is not entirely hole-free. Furthermore, we are clearly being readied for Paranormal Activity 3, and it may not be so easy to produce a frightening follow-up. There are surely only so many times you can see a door slam suddenly and still get the heebie-jeebies.

Though not a standalone classic, this is an enjoyable film that maintains the internal logic established in its source material, and the late October release makes it well-timed for Halloween audiences in search of a reliable shock.