Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity was extraordinary in the way in that it knows what truly causes fear in the human mind. Don't get me wrong, if I woke up one morning in a strange bathroom with my foot chained to the floor and only a saw to release me, I wouldn't be psyched about it. But when I am merely an observer, it takes something much more subtle to affect me.
Not only was Paranormal Activity as effective a horror movie as I've seen in a long time, but it cost only $15,000 to make. Let's compare that to the $193 million it made worldwide. Here is a case of pure profit. What does Hollywood do when faced with such endless upside? Make a franchise out of it!
Now, the one part I really didn't like about the first film is the last 5 seconds when it got all Jennifer's Body on us. The shame is that this sequel appears to be milking that route for all it's worth. Not to mention I just don't see lightning striking twice here. Sure, it will make quite a bit of money back, but I also think it will be incredibly predictable. Paranormal Activity worked because it was fresh and different. The sequel is much less so.
Of the few shots we see in this trailer, we are a bit short on adult protagonists. Over the course of the first movie we got to live with the characters Katie and Micah, and we sympathized with their plight. In this trailer we see a dog and a baby. While I do think the movies need more demon babies, I don't see such a plotline sustaining itself for feature length. There will probably be some characters capable of verbalizing, but the IMDb page is lacking at the moment.
Maybe I'm wrong and it will once again be entertaining to listen to doors creak for an hour and a half. No matter what, it will have to be better than most of those shows with male 20-somethings in night vision.
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