Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 2 is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Tod Williams and written by Christopher Landon, Michael R. Perry and Tom Pabst. The film is a prequel to the 2007 film Paranormal Activity, beginning two months before and following up with the events depicted in the original film. It was released in theaters at midnight on October 22, 2010 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and Ireland. An unrated version of the film was also released.[3]

Paranormal Activity 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTod Williams
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story byMichael R. Perry
Starring
CinematographyMichael Simmonds
Edited byGregory Plotkin
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • October 22, 2010 (2010-10-22)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million[1]
Box office$177.5 million[2]

Plot

In August 2006, a "burglary" occurs at the home of Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Daniel Rey (Brian Boland), trashing their house and leaving only their infant son Hunter's bedroom untouched. The only thing stolen is a necklace that Kristi's sister, Katie, gave to her. Martine, the Latin American family housekeeper and nanny, goes into Hunter's room after hearing a loud bang and senses something inside the room. She takes him downstairs and attempts to cleanse the house of "evil spirits" but Daniel arrives home and catches her burning sage. As a result, Martine is fired.

Kristi believes that their home is haunted and tells Daniel; Daniel reviews the footage but dismisses her claim. Katie and Kristi talk about being tormented by a demon when they were children. Daniel's daughter from a prior marriage, Ali (Molly Ephraim), begins investigating the mysterious happenings; she discovers that humans can make deals with demons for wealth or power by forfeiting the soul of their first-born son, but if the deal is not fulfilled, the demon will stick to the family until another son is born—Hunter was the first male to be born on Kristi's side since the 1930s.

The violence escalates; the family's German shepherd, Abby, who had been guarding Hunter at night, becomes aware of the demon's presence and is attacked and apparently suffers from a seizure. Daniel and Ali take Abby to the veterinarian, leaving Kristi alone with Hunter. When checking on the baby, Kristi is attacked and dragged into the basement by the demon, possessing her. The following day, Ali is left home with Kristi, unaware she is possessed. Soon, Ali hears a scratch sound in the basement door and opens it to find scratches and sees a word, meus (Latin for "Mine"), etched into it. Ali is terrified by Kristi's behavior.

After noticing a strange bite mark on her leg and discovering the footage of Kristi’s attack, Ali begs Daniel to come home; after he arrives, she shows him the footage. Daniel immediately calls Martine, who prepares a cross to exorcise the demon; Kristi will have no memory of having been possessed. Daniel goes to pass the demon onto Katie so that Kristi and Hunter will be saved, despite Ali's pleas not to.

That night, when Daniel tries to use the cross on Kristi, she attacks him and the houselights all go out, plunging everyone into darkness. Using the handheld camera's night vision, he finds Kristi and Hunter have disappeared. Furniture begins toppling over, and the chandeliers shake. Daniel chases Kristi into the basement, where she attacks him. He touches her with the cross, causing her to collapse. Daniel hears demonic growls and finally, the shaking stops. Daniel puts Kristi to bed and burns a photo of a young Katie, passing the demon onto her.

Three weeks later, Katie visits and explains that strange things have begun happening at her house. On October 9, a night after Micah is killed, a possessed and bloodstained Katie breaks into the house, kills both Kristi and Daniel then takes Hunter with her. The screen then fades to black.

An epilogue text states that Ali was on a school trip and returned home, found the bodies of Daniel and Kristi three days later, and that Katie and Hunter's whereabouts remain unknown.

Cast
  • Sprague Grayden as Kristi Rey
  • Brian Boland as Daniel Rey, Kristi's husband
  • Molly Ephraim as Ali Rey, Dan's daughter
  • Katie Featherston as Katie, Kristi's older sister
  • Micah Sloat as Micah
  • Seth Ginsberg as Brad, boyfriend of Ali
  • Vivis Cortez as Martine, the nanny / housekeeper
  • Jackson Xenia Prieto and William Juan Prieto as Hunter Rey, Dan and Kristi's infant son

Production

Paramount and DreamWorks hired screenwriter Michael R. Perry to create Paranormal Activity 2. Oren Peli, the director of the first film, served as a producer for this prequel.[4] Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, was initially hired to direct the prequel; however, Lions Gate Entertainment exercised a clause in Greutert's contract to have him direct the final film in the Saw franchise.[5] Both of the actors from the first film, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, reprise their roles in the prequel.[6] Tod Williams directed Paranormal Activity 2, which started production in May 2010 and finished filming in only three weeks.[7]

Marketing

In a special promotion set up by the film's producers, participants had a chance to win a free movie ticket if they were in the top twenty cities to demand the film, via Eventful.com.[8] The teaser trailer was seen with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse upon its release on June 30, 2010.[9] Cinemark pulled the trailer from several Texas theaters after receiving complaints that it was too frightening.[10] In Mexico, it was attached to the 3D version of Resident Evil: Afterlife. A second theatrical trailer was released on October 1, 2010. The trailer was attached to Devil, My Soul to Take and Jackass 3D.[11]

Release

The film was released in the United States on October 22, 2010. The film was made available in IMAX format as well as standard.[12]

Critical reception

Based on 136 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Paranormal Activity 2 has an overall 58% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 6.07/10. The consensus states that "Paranormal Activity 2 doesn't cover any new ground, but its premise is still scary—and in some respects, it's a better film than the original."[13] Artist Direct calls it "one of the scariest films of all time."[14] Entertainment Weekly said that the film "blends shock and suspense and smart and scary"; reviewer Owen Gleiberman called it a "shivery-skillful, highly worthy fear-factor sequel" and wrote, "The images all point down, which is subtly disquieting, and each one is composed with enough wide-angle space and distance, and enough nooks and crannies, so that even when nothing is happening, the often dead-silent shots tend to grow scarier the more you look at them... It made me jump, sweat, and chew my fingernails."[15] Positive reviews tend to view the film as effectively frightening, whereas negative and mixed reviews focus on the movie's perceived slow start.[16] By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received a "mixed or average" score of 53, based on 23 reviews.[17] Roger Ebert, who awarded the original film three and a half stars, awarded Paranormal Activity 2 one-and-a-half out of a possible four stars.[18]

Box office

Paranormal Activity 2 broke the record for biggest midnight gross for an R-rated film with $6.3 million, beating the previous record-holder Watchmen by $4.6 million, and broke the record for biggest opening for a horror movie of all time.[19] On its opening day, Paranormal Activity 2 placed number one at the box office, making $20,100,000 and finished with a total of $41,500,000 estimated over the weekend, placing first at the box office.[20] It has currently grossed $84,752,907 in North America and $92,759,125 overseas, giving the film a worldwide total of $177,512,032.[2]

Home media

Paranormal Activity 2 was released on DVD/Blu-ray and video on demand/pay-per-view on February 8, 2011, and includes an unrated director's cut and deleted scenes. Paranormal Activity 2 was placed at #1 for top Blu-ray and rental sales for its first week of being out.[21]

Sequels
See also: Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Paranormal Activity 3 is a 2011 American supernatural horror film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It is the third film of the Paranormal Activity series and serves as a prequel, set 18 years prior to the events of the first two films. It was released in theaters on October 21, 2011.

The fourth installment, Paranormal Activity 4, was released on October 18, 2012 in the United States. It was planned to take place five years after the events of Paranormal Activity 2. Katie and Hunter have reappeared and live in a house across the street from Alex and Wyatt. Alex and her family begin experiencing paranormal events taking place in their own home. "Toby" is mentioned once in the film, said by Ben. [22] Although a box office success, Paranormal Activity 4 was a critical failure.

A fifth film, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and sixth film, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, were released in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Deleted scene

The deleted scene from Paranormal Activity 2 titled, "Hunter" is available in, Paranormal Activity 2: Unrated Director's Cut.

See also

References
  1. Fritz, Ben (October 21, 2010). "Movie projector: 'Paranormal Activity 2' looking to scare 'Jackass 3-D' out of the top spot". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  2. "Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
  3. "New 'Paranormal Activity 2' Trailer Delivers Some Answers – Finally!". DiChiara, Tom. MTV.com. October 1, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  4. "'Saw VI' Director Hired for 'Paranormal Activity 2'". Newsinfilm.com. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  5. Holmes, Matt (January 28, 2010). "Kevin Greutert blogs his feelings on Saw 3-D vs. Paranormal Activity 2 studio battle!". Obsessedwithmovies.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
  6. Singh, Shamsher (July 2, 2010). "Paranormal Activity 2 "Too Scary"". TopnNews. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
  7. Leins, Jeff (March 26, 2010). "Paranormal Activity 2 Director Found". NewsinFilm.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
  8. "Paranormal Activity 2". Eventful. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  9. "Paranormal Activity 2 Teaser Coming with Twilight: Eclipse". ComingSoon.net. June 24, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2010.
  10. McClintock, Pamela (July 1, 2010) (June 30, 2010). "'Paranormal Activity 2' trailer pulled from theaters". Variety. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  11. "Paranormal Activity 2". Apple Trailers.
  12. Pupkin, Rupert (October 15, 2010). "Paranormal Activity 2: Coming to You in IMAX?". Reel Movie News. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
  13. "Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  14. http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/paranormal-activity-2-review-5-out-of-5-stars/7708983
  15. Gleiberman, Owen (October 21, 2010). "Paranormal Activity 2". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  16. "Paranormal Activity 2 Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  17. "Paranormal Activity 2 (2010): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  18. Ebert, Roger. "Paranormal Activity 2 movie review (2010) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  19. "'Paranormal Activity 2' Breaks Midnight-Screening Record". MTV.com. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  20. "Paranormal Activity 2 Tops Horror Box Office Numbers". MoreHorror.com. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  21. (2010-12-21). Paranormal Activity 2 Blu-Ray and DVD set for February Archived February 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Filmonic.com. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
  22. "Paranormal Activity 4" Archived 2013-01-03 at Archive.today. EmpireTheatres.com. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.