This sees to be a recurring theme in my reviews of films that may fall under the description of found footage, even though I'd say this is more a mockumentary than anything else, and that is the fact that I always come to their defense. Look, if I'm being fair, I have to admit that there's elements of the genre that allow certain filmmakers to be lazy and use a lot of shaky camera, glitches and distortion to avoid actually making somewhat of an effort to craft an effective horror movie that is only enhanced by the found footage style. Some people put the found footage style first and the horror second and that's when you get these lazy-ass movies. It has to be the other way around, the horror first and then you create the visual style around it second. That's why the first Paranormal Activity was so good. That, if it was filmed as a regular movie, would still have been good horror. I just hate this concept that just because a film is shot in a particular style that people are instantly gonna be put off by it for one reason or another. If you're a film nerd, then that's a really fucking stupid way to think. The idea of being a film nerd is the fact that, theoretically, you should be to different styles of filmmaking. But, I digress. Moving on to this sequel, a sequel to a movie that I was a big fan of. I'll be honest, I was looking forward to this movie ever since it was announced. I was just curious as to where the sequel would take this character, named Josef in the first movie and now Aaron (who was the cameraman in the other one), and whatever poor, unsuspecting person may have actually agreed to spend an entire day with him. This is very much like the first one in that I would say it's a bit of a slow-burner, but it's also a surprisingly different movie than the first one in that there's no real mystery about what Josef/Aaron is. But there's also the fact that Aaron/Josef, in the first one, was pretty much lying about everything he told the videographer. So you never know exactly what to believe whenever Aaron tells a story in this movie. You know that there's some legitimacy to his claims that he is a murderer, given the end of the first movie and how this one begins. There was a revelation at the end of the first one, where it's shown that Josef has a bunch of DVDs of people that, in theory, answered his Craigslist ads. The assumption being that these are all of Josef's victims, but it's something that is never confirmed. You're just sort of meant to make your own conclusions. Anyway, the thing that I like about this movie is that it focuses more on who Aaron is and exploring his psyche and why he is the way he is. It's quite the character study. Conceptually speaking, I love this movie. It's a movie about a serial killer who's going through a pretty severe mid-life crisis where he has lost his passion and desire to kill. He views it as a job. He hires another videographer, Sara, to document what, he feels, are going to be his last 24 hours on this earth, given that he plans to end his life at the end of that day. He feels that his 40th kill shouldn't be just another random person, it should be special. This is completely unrelated to the movie, but I just erased everything I had written and thought I lost the entire review. Thankfully the undo button finally worked this time. Anyway, Sara herself is also a struggling documentary filmmaker. She has this web series called Encounters, where she answers the strangest Craigslist ads she can find and she films the results of these encounters. It's actually a good concept for a show, but Sara's approach to the show, or the people she has encountered at least, has not been particularly successful. She's at her wit's end at the beginning of the film, ready to give up the show before she finally meets up with Aaron and she has the subject that she has finally been looking for. In a way, you could say that the film is about the difficulties of the creative process and how these two find inspiration in one another. Sara finds the subject she so desperately has wanted for her show and, in spite of her better judgment and the stories Aaron has told her, she plans to exploit that for as long as she can. And Aaron finds someone that, naturally, he becomes obsessed with and allows him to find the passion for his art again. Aaron and Sara have a mutually parasitic relationship, but it's one that somehow brings the best(?) out of each other. I don't wanna say it's a rom-com, because it's obviously not, but it shouldn't surprise you that there's some strange moments in the film where you wonder if these two crazies can find some mutual understanding and carry on with Aaron's "work". As I mentioned, I was a big fan of the original movie, but I think this focuses more on the characters at its core, whereas the original is more about the strangeness of Josef's behavior and whether or not he's someone who needs help or if he's someone to fear. This movie explores the dynamic and the relationship between Aaron and Sara more deeply, at least in my opinion. It's still a deeply unsettling movie, because there's something so normal about Aaron. Like he just looks like a guy you might actually know. And that's really a testament to Mark Duplass and how great he is in this role, because he embraces this character and all it embodies. He makes this character as believable a villain as is humanly possible, but he also adds a strangely human touch to him. He's not a one-dimensional character, to say the least. Sara, as a character, is also a more than welcome addition. Because I think she gives a face to the videographer that wasn't there in the original movie. You sympathize with her in that you want her web series to be successful, but are also dumbfounded at how she can just stick around this man who, very clearly, has a screw loose. Whether or not he's a serial killer, which she doesn't believe him to be at first, there is clearly something wrong with this man. And yet she still sticks around, out of the simple fact that she wants to push his buttons in order to get a better episode of her web series. As I mentioned earlier, this is very much a slow-burner. A lot of people take that as meaning boring, when it's not the case. If I thought this movie was boring, I'd have told you straight up. But I found the characters to be compelling and their interplay with each other made the climax all the more satisfying. Let's just that Sara finally sees how messed up Aaron truly is and that's when it picks up. I don't wanna spoil anything, but the last act of the movie is very strong. I don't feel like spoiling anything. Not that there's anything too surprising that goes on, but I just feel that's it's the type of movie best enjoyed with a clean slate. Obviously, it helps if you watched the original movie, but I felt that it's also not necessary. The movie is vague enough to where it's not a real continuation of what happened in the original movie, more like the next chapter of Aaron's life. And references that may be made to the original, in the eyes of someone who didn't watch the first one, could be explained as another of Aaron's prior...exploits. But I digress, I feel like parts of me, while giving the same rating, enjoyed this more than the original movie. I don't know, I just found the relationship between Sara and Aaron to be the highlight of the film. The writing is strong and the acting is even better. This is proof that quality 'found footage' films with strong character development can be made on the cheap without relying on the cliches associated with subgenre. PS: Fuck it, you know what, I'm going four stars. Discard what I said earlier about giving this the same rating as the original. This is what a sequel needs to be, it expanded on the characters. It doesn't repeat what came before, but it gives you enough hints of it that it doesn't feel like a completely different flick. Great stuff here.