The first Paranormal Activity was a low-budget fright-fest, pretty much the suburban answer to The Blair Witch Project. The prequel — which is set a few weeks before the start of the first movie and focuses on the sister of the original’s possessed protagonist — delivers plenty more of the same minimalistic psychological horror. Here, the plot device of there being cameras everywhere in the house is justified by a supposed break-in that the family suffers at the beginning of the movie (which, as you can probably guess, isn’t a real break-in at all…). The old Hollywood saying goes “never work with kids or animals”: Paranormal Activity 2 uses both in the creepiest way possible, and although it feels like a retread of the original in parts, there are a couple of scenes which will put you off raising or even being around a baby for the rest of your life. What’s more, the forthcoming Paranormal Activity 3 will be another step yet further back in time, predating both the first two movies.
