- Directed by Tod Williams
- Written by Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon, Tom Pabst
- Stars Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Sprage Graydem Brian Boland
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg4mPJdyg_E
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Note: Our review of the first “Paranormal Activity” can be found here.
This was a prequel to the first movie, giving a little explanation of what the causes were leading up to the first movie. It’s mostly more of the same, with activity that slowly builds to something terrible happening and lots of long lingering night footage shots. If you liked the first one, you will probably dig this one too.
Synopsis
Daniel and Kristi bring home the new baby and show the baby around the house. As Dan walks through the house with the baby, he notices the front door is standing wide open. Martine the nanny is there, as is Ali, the daughter, and Kristi’s sister Katie and Micah, Katie’s boyfriend.
About a year later, someone ransacks the whole house, breaking things and turning over all the furniture. It’s a mess, but nothing seems to be missing except one piece of jewelry. The baby’s room is untouched. The couple calls in some security experts to set up cameras and motion sensors throughout the house.
That night, the pool light turns off on its own. Martine, a Mexican traditionalist, says there’s something evil in the house. The second night, the baby’s mobile moves by itself. The third night, there’s music in the baby’s room. The fourth night, we hear heavy breathing. The fifth night, Martine is home alone with the baby and she hears a crash from upstairs as the dog starts barking. Dan and Kristi get home, and they’re not happy with Martine’s response of burning herbs to ward off the evil. The next morning, Martine is fired.
Other really minor things happen in the ensuing nights, and Kristi comes to the conclusion that they have a ghost now, which is laugh material for the rest of the family. They start reviewing the footage from the security cameras, and they find some weird stuff.
One night, Ali and Brad pull out a Ouija board and play with it; it says “HNT” the baby’s name is Hunter. Ali gets locked outside, and the baby flies around the room while she’s gone. Afterward, the baby wanders around the house alone. When Kristi and Dan return home, the baby is back where he’s supposed to be. Ali blames the ghost, and Dan is not supportive.
Ali does research and thinks maybe it’s a demon instead of a ghost. Ali encounters some more weirdness and talks to her mother about it. Could Martine have been right about the “bad spirits?” Katie warns Kristi to stay away from all this, or she’ll end up like their mother.
Kristi soon gets a big scare in the kitchen, and she no longer doubts anything. That night, something hurts the dog, and Dan and Ali take him to the vet, leaving Kristi with the baby. She gets dragged through the house and locked in the basement.
In the morning, Kristi is acting weird, and Ali is afraid of her. Ali shows Dan the tapes, but he doesn’t deal with it well. He calls Martine to come back and do her protection rituals again. Martine says the only way to fix the problem is to transfer the possession to a blood relative; that’d be Katie, Kristi’s sister. They think they can transfer the demon out of her and just not tell anybody.
Lots of crazy stuff happens in the dark house. No one in the house seems to have a flashlight, so they all wander around with night vision cameras. There’s a jump scare or two as Dan drives the demon out of Kristi. The lights come back on; will everything be normal again?
Three weeks later, Kristi talks to Katie, who says some weird stuff is now happening at their house…
<The events of the first film occur, killing Micah>
Some time later, Katie comes over, kills both Dan and Kristi, and takes baby Hunter away.
Commentary
So this is a prequel to the first film, explaining why the demon was picking on Katie and Micah.
There are many long, lingering shots where “almost” nothing happens. It’s like those pictures you compare to see if there are any differences– has something moved?
There’s some vague explanation about Kristi’s grandmother making a deal with a demon and Hunter being the first male born in the family, but nothing is really spelled out in certainty.
Kevin says that this is the same as the first film, but this one is supposed to have higher stakes because it has a baby and a dog.