One would think that horror is derived from the overall mood and tone of a scenario. The story must ooze terror in order for the audience to be immersed in it. Surely you couldn’t scare someone by sticking to the bare bones, the most banal rules that constitute the foundation of horror movie scare tactics. One would think that, but as the Paranormal Activity franchise shows one (for the second time now), one would be wrong and one should pay attention because THERE IS A DOOR OPENING ON ITS OWN VOLITION BEHIND ONE!
Yes, apparently scary movies no longer need to take place somewhere scary, or have the atmosphere of scariness about them. Really all you need is what I like to call the “Boo” factor. I call it this because “boo” is the appropriate thing to shout both as someone trying to deliver a sudden scare and as a disappointed audience member watching this movie.
Let’s face it, relying solely on sudden scares is almost as bad as Eli Roth’s “Gore = Scary” approach that I’ve discussed before. You can’t assume that one element, whether it be gore or sudden “boo” moments are going to carry the premise of a horror movie on its own. There’s a difference between showing a silent empty room for a minute and a half then having a door slam off camera and showing a deformed silhouette approach a sleeping girl who’s staying the night in a haunted castle. Both build tension, but one doesn’t technically do anything except make you wait for what you’re certain will eventually happen. If sudden loud smashes and bangs in the middle of the night is all it takes to entertain you, then move to Detroit.
Let’s look at it another way. Look around you right now. Are you near a door or manhole cover? I guarantee that if I suddenly burst through it right now and shouted, “Free cheesecake!” I’d make your heart jump, if only for a split second, because you wouldn’t have been expecting that. Our brains are hard wired with the fight or flight defense mechanism to make us pump out adrenaline when something surprises us. But with every split second of panic that such a moment causes, there’s the several seconds of realization immediately afterwards where you say, oh, it’s just free cheesecake, nothing scary actually happened. Most of “Paranormal Activity 2” is basically tricking you into thinking you’re scared when really it’s just playing on your basic human reflexes.
Now to be fair, there are some moments of the film that are truly disquieting. The setting may be the extremely modernized household of the extremely affluent Rey family, and is in no way scary in and of itself. But this fact is quickly erased when we see that most of the events take place at night! Ooooooooh… at niiiiiiight! And the climactic scene takes place in the basement, which could be correctly described as cluttered! Ooooooooh… cluuuuuuterrrrred! Messssssyyyyyy! Boogady boogady boo! Ok so the setting isn’t all that scary, despite the darkness and clutter, but it is admittedly unnerving in its simplicity. For one, the central problem of the film is that the evil spirit is after the newborn baby, a terrifying notion for any new parent. Again, it’s the film playing off human instincts, the parental instinct, but even the sight of the little tyke’s mobile spinning by itself or seeing him being slowly dragged across the length of his crib even set my hairs on end.
And to give credit where credit is due, I will admit there were some “boo” scenes that made me shit my pants, but I think I can attribute that more to the experimentation with my daily dosage of Metamucil. The scene that got me most was one that starts out so unassuming because it’s in the middle of the day. The mother is enjoying her coffee alone in the kitchen and she hears a small creaking noise like a particularly rotund person alighting upon a wicker fiddleback (Or a fatty sitting on a chair). But I reassured myself that nothing bad was going to happen because it was the middle of the day and all the bad things happen at n-
But I didn’t finish this thought because then all the kitchen cabinets exploded open and my testicles flew up and lodged in my sinuses, on the way knocking my heart into a comatose rest. So I applaud “Paranormal Activity 2” for that truly unexpected moment, and assure you that I will be expecting full compensation for my dry cleaning bill that week.
There is an attempt at a back-story, but that’s just an excuse to make sure this movie didn’t just become an hour and a half of those prank mazes on the internet where a scary face pops up when you’re almost done.
The overall effect of “Paranormal Activity 2” is strong but basic. It’s a very innovative in how it presents the story (as was the first film). We are observing from a set of security cameras. We are in no way immersed in the story, in fact, we’re about as removed as you can get. The movie tries to pull us in with the handicam approach, like we’re the ones stuck in the house, but it never really effectively sinks in. We’re far removed from what we’re seeing, and as such can only be scared by loud noises that a film should be above having to resort to so much. You will get scared watching this movie, but after you’ve calmed down, you’ll realize you were not impressed by it because it is frightening only in the dictionary definition of the word.
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