| Paranormal Activity 2 | |
| Director: | Tod Williams |
| Story: | Michael R. Perry |
| Cinematography: | Michael Simmonds |
| Editing: | Gregory Plotkin |
| Distributor: | Paramount Pictures |
| Runtime: | 91 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $3 million[1] |
| Gross: | $177.5 million[2] |
Paranormal Activity 2 is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Tod Williams and written by Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst. The film is a prequel and a sequel to the 2007 film Paranormal Activity, beginning two months before and following up with the events depicted in the original film. It was released in theaters at midnight on October 22, 2010 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and Ireland.An unrated version of the film was also released.[3]
In August 2006, a "burglary" occurs at the home of Kristi and Daniel Rey, trashing their house and leaving only their infant son Hunter's bedroom untouched. The only thing stolen is a necklace that Kristi's sister, Katie, gave to her. Martine, the Latin American family housekeeper and nanny, senses "evil spirits" in the house and burns sage to rid the house of them, and Daniel fires her for doing so. Kristi also believes that their home is haunted, and she and Katie talk about being tormented by a demon when they were children. Daniel, however, initially dismisses her claim despite footage of strange occurrences around the house. Daniel's daughter from a prior marriage, Ali, begins investigating the mysterious happenings; she discovers that humans can make deals with demons for wealth or power by forfeiting the soul of their first-born son, but if the deal is not fulfilled, the demon will stick to the family until another son is born — Hunter was the first male to be born on Kristi's side since the 1930s. The violence escalates, as the family's German shepherd, Abby, is attacked by the demon and apparently suffers from a seizure. As Daniel and Ali take Abby to the veterinarian, Kristi is attacked and dragged into the basement by the demon, who possesses her. The following day, Ali is left home with Kristi, unaware she is possessed. Soon, Ali hears a scratching sound from the basement door and opens it to find scratches and sees a word, meus (Latin for "Mine"), etched into it. A strange bite mark on her leg and the footage of Kristi’s attack motivates Daniel to re-hire Martine, who prepares a cross to exorcise the demon; Kristi will have no memory of having been possessed. Daniel plans to pass the demon onto Katie so that Kristi and Hunter will be saved, despite Ali's pleas not to.
That night, when Daniel tries to use the cross on Kristi, she attacks him and the house lights all go out. Using the handheld camera's night vision, he walks around the shaking house into the basement, where he is attacked by Kristi; he retaliates against her with the cross, causing her to collapse. Daniel puts Kristi to bed and burns a photo of a young Katie, passing the demon onto her. Three weeks later, Katie visits and explains that strange things have begun happening at her house. On October 9, the night after Micah is killed, a possessed and bloodstained Katie breaks into the Rey house, kills Daniel and Kristi and then takes Hunter with her. A title card explains that Ali comes home from a school trip to find the bodies, and Katie and Hunter's whereabouts remain unknown.
Coming after the box office success of Paranormal Activity, distributor Paramount Pictures quickly pursued a sequel.[4] [5] Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, was slated to direct while Michael R. Perry was set to write the film in January 2010.[6] [7] Oren Peli, the writer and director of the first film, was not expected to be directly involved with the sequel, but approved of Perry's story.[8] Days after his hiring, Greutert was suddenly pulled from the project after Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate used a clause in Greutert's contract to direct Saw 3D; only two weeks away from filming.[9] Peli, who remained on board as a producer, was ruled out as a viable replacement due to his obligations to Area 51.[10] Brian De Palma and Akiva Goldsman were early candidates for the directors chair. Goldsman instead became involved as an executive producer and would help shape the story, while De Palma met with Perry and Jason Blum.[11] [12] [8] Circumstances changed and De Palma moved on, leading to Paramount looking toward Brad Anderson and Greg McLean.[13] [8] By March 2010, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat were expected to reprise their roles.[14] By the end of the month, Tod Williams was tapped to direct the film with production set to begin that May.[15] [16]
Production on Paranormal Activity 2 began without a completed script. Three weeks into filming, the footage was said to be "disastrous"; leading to a writer's room being assembled and production shutting down. Christopher Landon, one of the writers brought in, gave notes on the footage which prompted a studio executive to hire Landon and another unnamed writer to write half of the film. The pair's screenplay failed to satisfy the studio, and one final attempt by Landon alone was enough to reinvigorate the production.[17]
In a special promotion set up by the film's producers, participants had a chance to win a free movie ticket if they were in the top twenty cities to demand the film, via Eventful.com.[18] The teaser trailer was shown with upon its release on June 30, 2010.[19] Cinemark pulled the trailer from several Texas theaters after receiving complaints that it was too frightening.[20] A second theatrical trailer was released in October 2010 and was attached to Devil, My Soul to Take and Jackass 3D.[21]
The film was released in the United States on October 22, 2010. The film was made available in IMAX format as well as standard.[22]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on reviews from 137 critics, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The consensus states that "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."[23] On Metacritic, the film has received an weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a grade B.[25]
Artistdirect called it "one of the scariest films of all time".[26] Entertainment Weekly said the film "blends [shock and suspense] into what might be called shockpense"; reviewer Owen Gleiberman called it a "shivery-skillful, highly worthy fear-factor sequel" and wrote, "The images all point down, which is subtly disquieting, and each one is composed with enough wide-angle space and distance, and enough nooks and crannies, so that even when nothing is happening, the often dead-silent shots tend to grow scarier the more you look at them… It made me jump, sweat, and chew my fingernails."[27] Roger Ebert, who awarded the original film three and a half stars, awarded Paranormal Activity 2 one-and-a-half out of a possible four.[28]
Paranormal Activity 2 broke the record for biggest midnight gross for an R-rated film with $6.3 million, beating the previous record-holder Watchmen by $4.6 million, and broke the record for biggest opening for a horror movie of all time.[29] On its opening day, Paranormal Activity 2 placed number one at the box office, making $20,100,000 and finished with a total of $41,500,000 estimated over the weekend, placing first at the box office.[30] It has currently grossed $84,752,907 in North America and $92,759,125 overseas, giving the film a worldwide total of $177,512,032.[31]
Paranormal Activity 2 was released on DVD/Blu-ray and video on demand/pay-per-view on February 8, 2011, and includes an unrated director's cut and deleted scenes. Paranormal Activity 2 was placed at #1 for top Blu-ray and rental sales for its first week of being out.[32] The film grossed $20.4 million in home sales.[33]
The deleted scene from Paranormal Activity 2 titled "Hunter" is available in Paranormal Activity 2: Unrated Director's Cut.
See also: Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin. Paranormal Activity 3 is a 2011 American supernatural horror film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It is the third film of the Paranormal Activity series and serves as a prequel, set 18 years prior to the events of the first two films. It was released in theaters on October 21, 2011.
The fourth installment, Paranormal Activity 4, was released on October 18, 2012, in the United States. It was planned to take place four years after the events of Paranormal Activity 2. Katie and Hunter have reappeared and live in a house across the street from Alex and Wyatt. Alex and her family begin experiencing paranormal events taking place in their own home. "Toby" is mentioned once in the film, said by Ben.[34] Although a box office success, Paranormal Activity 4 was a critical failure.
A fifth film, and sixth film, , were released in 2014 and 2015 respectively. A seventh film, , was released in 2021.