BOTTOM LINE: Kudos to the filmmakers for believably milking the original premise in this sequel without replicating it, but the build up of tension achieved so well the first time is absent here, and despite some good scares in the last third, the film is very dull.

THE GOOD: One of the best things about this sequel to the hit horror film “Paranormal Activity” is that the filmmakers have wisely chosen to use the same found footage format, but have cleverly utilised the idea of security camera footage interspersed with home video footage to tell the story. By doing this, they have many more angles to play with rather than the single static one from the first film, which allows for more variety in shots and scares. Also, the filmmakers play with night-vision options to create some great scares in the last third of the film. Story-wise, the film wraps around the first film in that the majority of it takes place before the first film, with the climax taking place after the events of the first film, and provides a richer explanation as to why this demon is terrorising sisters Katie and Kristi. In doing this, the filmmakers have provided a valid reason for this sequel to exist outside of generating more revenues for the film’s distributor. The film is a valiant attempt to replicate the experience of the first film, and in parts, it does bring something new to the table and provides the requisite scares at various points.

THE BAD: Until the scares truly kick in about two thirds of the way through, the film is really dull. What made the first film work was that it used psychological thrills to slowly build up tension. Each new event was worse than the one before, and they used the characters to achieve this. The scene in the first film where Katie stands up in the middle of the room for hours during the night, for example, is psychologically freaky. There are no scenes like this in the second film. All we get are grunting noises and some objects moving around, which is unfortunately boring when you consider that the design of the footage using security cameras could have lent itself to more variety in the scares. The characters are not doing anything themselves to induce the terror, only reacting to what they see (which is not much). It is not until we are deep in to the film that we get the truly terrifying scenes, but by then, it’s too little too late.