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Critics Consensus: 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.
Critic Consensus: 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.
All Critics (133) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (55) | DVD (6)
Like Oren Peli, who created the first film, director Tod Williams keeps the dialogue So-Cal dumb and colorless, which must be part of the scare plan but makes both these movies hard to sit through.
...reaffirms familiar scare tactics...taps into a certain kind of eeriness implicit in the threat to suburban domesticity, which was precisely what made "Poltergeist" so frightening back in the day.
Less scary than a toaster.
Even knowing what's likely to come -- the doors opening on their own, the skeptical characters scoffing at metaphysical explanations, the unheeded warnings from paranormally gifted guests -- doesn't make it any less nailbiting to watch.
It's simultaneously a lot more expensive and a lot cheaper.
Demons of mediocrity, be gone! Here we have a shrewd sequel a touch better than the original.
Earns some really nice chills, especially once we hit the big finale.
This demon is more like a lousy roommate, turning the lights on, leaving the cabinets open and making loud noises in the kitchen while everybody's trying to sleep.
Paranormal Activity 2 is surprisingly boring, not scary and lazily made. This is hands down one of the worst horror movies that I've ever seen.
It's the scariest movie in years.
To put it simply, if you've seen the first film, then you've seen this film. There's nothing new offered here, so there's not much of a point in bothering with it.
While the meagre rationing of shocks is undoubtedly frustrating for the bulk of the movie, this allows the final act plenty of room to crank the fear factor up to 11.
A superior and scarier sequel (prequel actually) that serves best as an example of what the first movie should have been but wasn't, given that, contrary to the silly sheet tricks of that one, we're offered this time a more interesting development of the paranormal activity.
Super Reviewer
The second movie, with better camera, budget, and story moves away from its primal roots while still managing to deliver scares greater than the first.
Longer and more complex, but not as scary as the first film, relying too much on the same tricks that just aren't as effective this time around.
"Paranormal Activity 2" is one of the creepiest films in recent years. When it was finished I was afraid to walk into my house, because the events that happen in the film feel so much more realistic than the first film that I shook when I was walking out of the theatre. The scary thing is that there was actually a back story to the first film which compiles everything together and makes sense eventually. A much better horror film that the first, but not even coming close to being as original. The things that this movie did right that the first film did wrong was provide a variety of areas throughout the house to view during the night and jumps that made me jump for the first time in a long time. Horror movies nowadays suck, but Paranormal Activity 2 is a very nice change of pace. Don't tell me it's fake and that I shouldn't be scared, because you would be crazy to say that your not! This film is terrifying as hell, and the scary thing is that you actually believe it's real, due to the realism that it portrays with back and forth to the first film. It isn't quite the fantastic piece of art the the first one was, but it definitely met the standards that I always look for in horror films. Overall, "Paranormal Activity 2" is a great surprise!
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