FILM REVIEW: Paranormal Activity 2

Title: Paranormal Activity 2

Main actors: Sprague Graysden, Brain Boland.

Year of production: 2010.

Company: Paramount Pictures.

Directed by: Tod Williams.

Paranormal Activity is a supernatural horror film about a family who are tormented by a demon who wants to take their baby boy away due to a supposed agreement made by the great grandmother with the demon.

The narrative structure of the film is Linear with an open structure. The film has a clear beginning with the birth of the baby boy followed by small events that set the scene for the rest of the film signalling the start of the action. For example the whole house being destroyed which led to the surveillance cameras being installed, which is a key aspect of the film since the whole movie is filmed using the found footage from these cameras and the handheld cameras of the characters. Another detail highlighted at the start is a water puddle at the bottom of the basement staircase which brings attention to that area of the house foreshadowing the importance it has to the rest of the film. This is because later on we as an audience find out that that is where the demon stays, so the puddle could have been some sort of gateway.

This then leads to the numerous events in the middle of the films which start of calm and infrequent but eventually builds up the tension and anxiety amongst the audience as the film hits its climax. For example at the beginning the only weird and strange things taking place was the pool cleaner leaving the pool every night, but that was only seen as a technical thing by the husband. There were also the many incidents when the baby toys turn on and off when nobody was looking and door closing and opening as well. There is also a significant focus on the baby’s room where the door is in, where there are weird grumbling and banging noises and the camera capturing the baby communicating with something in the room while the dog stares and barks at the same direction. This events all help the audience to concluded that the main target here is the baby rather than the rest of the family members. This is further suggested when the older sister tries to communicate with the spirit thinking that it might be her mother trying to make contact, after joking around she fails to notice that the spirit is halfway through spelling the babies name but we as an audience are well aware of that. The film has an open structure because despite the text on the screen informing us that the older sister find her father and stepmother's dead bodies, we still don’t know what happened to the baby who was taken by his aunty who was possessed by the demon, this provides space for the a sequel and causes the audience to anticipate what this will lead to.

The film’s climax hits the highest point right before the ending when the man tries to exercise the demon out of his wife’s body. This scene is particularly well done, unlike the previous scene it makes use of CGI special effects to show the change in the woman’s facial features in order to highlight the fact that she is possessed and the demon is not happy with the husbands attempt to transfer him to somebody else. In my opinion the film producers chose the right moment to use the special effects without taking away the aspect of the film being made to look like it’s homemade. This last scene also successfully shows the anger of the demon by making use of the horror film convention of the lights turning off, the camera then switches to night vision where we see and hear furniture being knocked over. Later on when the man confronts the demon and begins to remove him from his wife’s body we can see the floor shaking and hear loud grumbling sounds which are further highlighted by the broken glass pieces on the floor.

One of the horror film conventions this film conforms to is the use of shaky handheld cameras especially in the last scenes we as an audience have a hard time keep up with what’s going on because the camera fails to focus on one thing for too long, the scene overall is too hectic. Another conventional use of the handheld camera is when the older sister leaves the camera facing the baby radio before leaving the room, in this scene we hear whispering in the baby’s room which informs us that there is something or someone there, it allows us to feel more involved with the film since we know something the character doesn’t.

Another convention this horror film conforms to is the use of dark low key lighting during the night, which prevents the audience from seeing  the house clearly, causing them to concentrate more in order to not miss anything strange and as a result when something does happen they end up more shocked due to focusing more on the scene.

The main male character conforms to the stereotype that men are brave because he doesn’t hesitate to confront the demon in order to save his wife and son which shows that men are emotional and caring. He is also seen as the breadwinner since he is the only one who works in the household. The main female character conforms to the stereotype that women are caring and hold primary responsibility for childcare as she spends most of her time playing and taking care of the baby.

I believe this film was rated 15 because of the strong language used, since the characters repeat swear words various times especially when they are freaked out. The film also contains scenes of violence but they don’t focus on the infliction of pain and injury like Saw, and they are not very detailed, for example when the demon breaks the man’s neck we hear the sound of his neck breaking but we only see the action from afar, it is short without too much detail.