I really don't know why I do this to myself. For
my review of the first Paranormal Activity Blu-ray release, I holed myself and a group of my friends in a shop cellar that burrowed under a cemetery to add to the effect of the movie. Gimmicky, yes: but that was sort of the point. This time around, I wanted to do something for me. Something of more affecting personal scope- a gimmick that would be bigger and better than the cellar stunt. Ultimately it was something that I would come to regret.
Paranormal Activity 2 hits UK shelves on blu-ray this week (find our
original cinematic review here), so to celebrate, last week I took advantage of a discovery I had made in my new house to build up the right sort of atmosphere for the shocks to really land, and the spine-tingling terror to do its strange magic. Read on, if you dare... My apologies for the slightly camp Vincent Price-esque lead-in there, but I had to get you past the jump somehow. Anyway, here's the skinny. A couple of months ago I moved into a new house, Victorian mid-terrace with character and original features to die for. Apparently someone already had. On exploring the cellar, which has and outer chamber decked out with work benches and boring things like that and what I assumed was a small inner chamber/crawl-space accessible by a locked door in the far left corner, I found the key to the door that separated both chambers, and naturally went for a peek at that "crawl-space". Turns out, unknown to us, there is in fact a grotto underneath the house, that extends way back, and is effectively a little slightly feral living space carved into the stone below the house. No natural light, and only one power supply. In short, the perfect place to watch a horror film.
So, as I said, last week, I took my laptop to the cellar- alone, as my girlfriend refused point blank- and the Blu-ray disc of the Limited Edition Triple Pack edition of Paranormal Activity 2, and set about scaring the sodding beejesus out of myself once more in the name of my art. The chill-factor of this sequel, and the original in fact, is the idea of penetrated domesticity. As I said in
my review of the original film, the scares work because it robs the viewer of the sanctity of their own supposedly safe havens, turning the protection of suburban contentment back upon the films' victims. Films in this mould- like Poltergeist- make the home a place of threat, playing on the fundamental nesting instinct we all have and turning it upside down. That's why you'll remember the scariest moments when you're lying in your bed late at night, when you're supposed to feel safe- because the film is successful in its endeavours to scare, it takes away that innate feeling of safety. And Paranormal Activity achieves its thrills and chills rather simply when it boils down to it- on paper there aren't that many genuinely scary moments, other than in the last five or ten minutes. Up until then, there are lots of jumps, but not a great deal that will endure beyond the viewing experience, which was a bit of a problem for the first film as well. While the first time you try to sleep after viewing may be difficult and even cold-sweat-soaked, the fear fades as easily as it builds. But here, there has been a conscious effort to make everything a little bit more enduringly creepy. Again taking a leaf out of Poltergeist's book of scares, Paranormal Activity 2 goes one step further than its predecessor by introducing a child to matters. So that's two strikes in the fundamental fears column- it works well here for the same reason that the appearance of children has become an almost cliched part of a significant proportion of horror flicks: because it inverts a seemingly stable truth- the innocence of childhood- to immediately jarring effect.
Again the acting on show isn't exactly brilliant, but the family interact well enough, and crucially in a "real" rather than
pseudo-real enough manner to make the events stay in keeping with the True Story line. The family dynamic sadly can't compete with the bickering couple dynamic that worked so well for the first film, and it feels somewhat stretched since none of the characters are particularly likeable. I oddly found myself empathising most with Abby the German Shepherd (probably because she doesn't have any painful dialogue). Particularly from my cellar perch, it was the elements closest to reality that had the most profoundly scary effect on me- at its simplest level- the less is more implications of the poltergiest's presence. But then back in the light, when I viewed it second time around, I got a different feeling entirely. The makers seem to have recognised from the first film's success that there is a trick to scaring an audience in the simplest of scare tactics, so we have the same formula as the first in that regard, but they also seem to have neglected the finesse and audience engagement that is a pre-requisite of the scares really landing. This follow-up is definitely not as effective as the first- the revelation of some of the mysteries behind the scares murkies the waters a little, and removes a little of their effect. But its still more effective at its simple scare agenda than 90% of the far flashier, more expensive supposed horrors that saturate the market every year, even if the pre-release marketing campaign suggested a far better film focused on a possessed Katie's terrorising of her family.
The one enduring thought I have in final summation is that Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2 aren't actually real films. Their agenda is to take the mechanisms of horror and strip absolutely everything away so that all we are left with is the pure elemental scare- they are the filmic equivalent of that internet MPEG where you're supposed to look at the maze and a big scary face appears to make you need a change of underwear. Their essence is the scare, and really, it's more of a gimmicky construct that holds the mini-scares together, rather than a narrative: perhaps that's why I chose to watch it in a gimmicky way, seeking for some reason to scare myself even further. But with an agenda so cynically engaged on only one outcome, technique and finesse are bound to fall by the wayside as the franchise progresses- look at Saw a franchise that eventually abandoned all pretensions of real art in favour of simple mindless trap-based Gore Porn: if the Paranormal Activity series (and it will advance beyond number 3) continues in the same vein, that is where they will find their conclusion.
Quality
Obviously, the video quality is pretty wildly all over the place, given the filming techniques- the security footage is often dark and undefined, which of course adds to the atmosphere but offers little in the way of strong source material for the transfer. The other footage- taken from two high-definition hand-held cameras operated by Daniel and step-daughter Kristi- is by far superior, but is necessarily limited to a capped quality, since it still needs to be believable as "found footage". In short, it isn't anything to write home about, but that's sort of the point- and in terms of found footage films, it is by far the best looking I've ever seen.
The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track seems a little ostentatious for the majority of the film, given the lack of heavy hitting sound levels- in fact most of the film is quiet and dialogue driven, and quiet because of the limited range of the home-video format and security cameras. Where that powerful track really does its business though is when it is announcing the presence of the ghostly entity, with the added oomph adding further effect to the jumps, if robbing a little authenticity from proceedings, since we are supposed to believe that the only recording devices are those built into the security cameras.
Extras
Nothing much- the limited edition Triple Play blu-ray offers two versions of the film, which are remarkably similar (the difference being the addition of two scenes dedicated to Daniel adding a little humour), as well as the now obligatory (though entirely unnecessary) Digital Copy and a DVD- which was handy for my cellar adventure. There is also some added Found Footage (otherwise known as Deleted Scenes) which actually appeared in the original trailer, and another Teaser Trailer that features further footage that didn't make it into the final cut. Paranormal Activity 2 is available to buy on
Blu-ray and
DVD now.