Paranormal Activity 2

Directed by Tod Williams

(R)

***

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Paranormal Activity 2 is a “shrewd sequel a touch better than the original,” said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. With little but a single surveillance camera and a methodical sense of suspense, last year’s low-budget hit put us inside a suburban couple’s bedroom and then cleverly exploited our innate fear of things that go bump in the night. The sequel “cannily expands” the concept by moving to a bigger home with more dark corners, and adding more cameras and characters. After a mysterious break-in, the family in the new film has installed a security system that begins capturing evidence of supernatural forces at work, said Keith Phipps in the DailyBeast.com. As the video cuts between cameras, the stillness “threatens to produce unspeakable terror,” and sometimes does. “Nothing here is as unsettling as the original” because the “malevolent force never feels like a real character,” said Dennis Harvey in Variety. But if the worst that can be said about this sequel is that it’s a letdown, that sure beats a “franchise-killing disaster.”