I spent the weekend watching, for the first time, Paranormal Activity with my wife and our eldest. There had been so much hype about the film. How the first hour is boring but the final twenty minutes of the film are so terrifying that you wont be able to sleep for days. None of us really felt that, but I figured I had to get that movie out of the way if I was to make a proper review of Paranormal Activity 2 which is a prequel to the first PA film.

The Unrated Director’s Cut is for better or worse the same film only made for the other spectrum of viewer. In the first it was geared more towards the single viewer or childless couples out there whose fears would be derived from the formula of living together for the first time, possibly in a relationship that wasn’t as concrete as you would have liked, and possibly, even though living together, would still amount to be being on your own at something new for the first time. Add that together and throw in an angry demon and the fright possibilities are there when mounted with stress and tension. PA2 is for the family or couples with children. Throw in a kid and all your worst fears come to light, more so then a dating couple, and for measure add a protective dog hero-type. Regardless PA2 just feels like a rehashing of the same exact film only with less moments of fear inducing surprise. Be that as it may no one can stop the inevitable sequel that is set to come out this year in the usual quantity over quality formula Hollywood has been rolling out for quite some time now.

QUALITY:
Let’s be completely honest here. PA and PA2 are films that challenge the viewer to see the world through hand held cameras. For what it is I found the picture to be refreshingly bright, colorful, and clear as a representation of a hand held camera style. The security camera’s tend to give off a bit of flicker and grain but that as well is to be expected from picture quality meant to represent standard grade camera work. In that you have to hand it to the directors that what you see is what you get and the BD transfer for the film is relatively loyal. Audio is acceptable as well though if your going to make the argument that everything has been captured via hand held’s the sound wouldn’t be as dynamic as it is here but the bump in quality is definitely appreciated.

BONUS FEATURES:
The only bonus features here, and this is a stretch, are two versions of the film (with a difference of about seven minutes in footage I believe), DVD + Digital Copy, and Found Footage which runs about three minutes and eleven seconds. Pretty weak considering.