Review: “Paranormal Activity 2”
myPDFscripts is an excellent resource, not just because they make hundreds of screenplays available for download for free, but also for their interviews and movie reviews. In this one, contributor Jeff Beck provides his take on Paranormal Activity 2. The money quote:
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. At least this time the studio didn’t try to fool people by including the same old tiresome “scared audience” footage in their marketing.
And yet, there’s this:
Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 2 had a spooky-good weekend, topping the domestic box office with an estimated $41.5 million in the best debut ever by a horror film.
The tally was at least a third better than prophesized for the haunted-house prequel and beat its franchise predecessor’s bow running away. But it was never really a contest, due to the fright pics’ vastly different release strategies.
Paranormal Activity opened in September 2009 with $77,873 from just 12 theaters, part of a low-profile launch prior to the micro-budgeted original’s wide expansion. A year ago this past weekend, Paranormal topped domestic rankings with a $21 million session en route to an eventual $107.9 million domestic haul.
Paranormal 2 unspooled in 3,216 locations, with most programming midnight Thursday performances as part of a $20 million Friday. The prequel collected more coin during its first weekend than its predecessor rang up in its first four weeks and wiped from the record books a $40.6 million bow by 2009 horror pic Friday the 13th.
Produced for just $3 million, Paranormal 2 relied on a low-wattage cast with location costs limited to a haunted house, while its faux video-camera look skirted pricey lensing. Helmed by Tod Williams (The Door in the Floor), the R-rated pic drew mostly positive reviews from critics and attracted first-day audiences comprised 54% of females, with 61% of patrons under age 25.
“The first Paranormal was like making something out of thin air,” Paramount exec vp distribution Don Harris said. “With the prequel, they were able to make a movie that got a stunning number of positive reviews.”
The outsize bow by Paranormal 2 — including $2.5 million from 151 high-grossing Imax specialty venues — underscores the difficulty in forecasting the market strength of Internet-buzz pictures, especially with second installments in youth-targeting franchises.
Before its launch, some dismissed the solid prerelease interest expressed in tracking surveys and predicted the prequel would flop like Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, a disappointing $13.2 million debutante in 2000. But with the Paranormal series suffering no such burn-out, the only question now is how quickly Paramount will scratch up the pocket change required to produce a threequel.
“The company is certainly going to take a look at making a third but will be exceedingly careful in how to go about it,” Harris said.
I wonder if Paramount, cognizant of how different Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was from its predecessor, decided to make Paranormal Activity 2 more like the original, what sounds like more of a remake than a prequel. In any event, PA2 is clearly no BW2 because whereas the latter grossed only $26M, PS2 managed that in its first two days of release.
Anybody see Paranormal Activity 2? What did you think of it?
Trailer:
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