Paranormal Activity etched its name in horror lore as one of those rare marketing moments that altered the very fabric of the genre as we knew it. An undisputable monster in a genre of monsters. A cultural phenomenon that stood for everything we loved about the genre. A movie that made you feel something in a way only horror can provide. Some went home and turned on all the lights in the house. Some scoffed, proudly unbothered by its attempts to creep them out. But everyone saw it. Everyone talked about it. Most of them thirsty for more home video shenanigans. How the hell do you follow that up? This… is what happened to Paranormal Activity 2.
In 2007, Paranormal Activity made close to $200 million dollars on a $15,000 budget. Meaning the Corleone’s themselves could have put a severed horse head in the bed of every executive at Paramount Pictures to stop a sequel from happening and it wouldn’t have mattered. A sequel was inevitable. But It was going to be impossible to recreate that cultural shock Paranormal Activity had on the world. It had ushered in a new era of horror filmmaking the same way Scream or The Blair Witch Project had before. As a matter of fact, you could look to those two franchise starters for inspiration. Would they try and recreate the wheel, or simply create a cadence for a franchise? Scream 2 followed mostly the same playbook as its predecessor and was a wild success. Meanwhile, Book of Shadows went off the reservation and was not. Paramount would decide to follow the former’s footsteps and create another low budget, security cam extravaganza. Also in the same vein as Scream 2, it would follow many of the rules of a sequel. Where slasher sequels carry with them a bigger body count and more elaborate death scenes; Paranormal Activity 2 would feature a bigger home, bigger family, and more jump scares. And yeah, a slightly bigger body count. Not hard to do, considering the previous film ended with one official death where bitch-ass Micah was hurled at a camera.
Michael R Perry would get the go ahead to write the film, his first film project following stints writing shows like House and The Dead Zone. Perry would also go on to write underrated horror comedy The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds. The writer would work hand in hand with almost director Kevin Greutert, who had only one feature film under his directorial belt at the time in Saw VI. Greutert was extremely excited about the prospect of directing Paranormal Activity 2, but alas, it was not to be. Lionsgate had found an option in the director’s contract that would force him by law to come back to the franchise and direct Saw 3D. Everyone’s favorite Saw. Kidding. As legend has it, Lionsgate was mere weeks from rolling cameras on Saw 3D when they abruptly parted ways with its original director David Hackl who they previously worked with on Saw V. Hackl doesn’t say why but offers a hint at it, and confirms the cutthroat move, telling Matthew Toffolo, “They asked me to stay on for the whole year and learn everything there was about 3D filmmaking and how we could best use it on a Saw film. Unfortunately, three days before we start Saw 3D, the producers exercised my ‘pay or play’ deal, bumping me off the picture and exercised their second picture option with Kevin Greutert, forcing him off Paranormal Activity 2 when it was announced that it was going to open the same day as Saw 3D. Welcome to directing”. Greutert was no happier about it than his counterpart. In a blog post that has since been removed and reposted on Reddit, Greutert allegedly wrote, “Lawyers are sending me to Canada tomorrow! I just had the task of telling my 83 year old mother that no, I’m not going to be allowed to direct the movie we were all so excited about when my family last got together, and that I’m being forced to leave town before getting a chance to see her again. Yes, I’ll be filming people getting tortured YET AGAIN. So we’ll have to put off me making a film she can actually watch for another year. I’m not making this shit up.”
Yikes. But you get it. If you look at the situation through his eyes, there’s a very big difference between being involved from the get-go, as he was on Paranormal Activity 2 with both him and writer Michael Perry pitching the studio ideas; and being rushed to fulfill the ideas of someone else where the gears are already in motion. Lionsgate pun intended. Not only that, but there’s a big future career difference between jumping from one somewhat successful franchise sequel to what would have surely been another hit franchise sequel and helmer of Saw 3D. The business is what the business is, and thankfully he would return to direct a beloved Saw X (fingers crossed for XI). But Paranormal Activity 2 still needed a director after the Saw trap Lionsgate put them in. Enter… Brian De Palma? News stories circulated around the time that De Palma was circling the project which would have made for a fascinating odd couple. Sure, the director was no stranger to horror having directed Carrie, The Fury, and Raising Cain. But he’s not the first guy you think of when you think found footage. For unknown reasons, this never came into fruition.
Some were hoping for Steven Spielberg to shock the world and direct the film. This after enjoying the first one so much he brought it back to Paramount in a garbage bag for the fear it was haunted; and famously suggesting the film’s ending. Realistically, that was never going to happen. The obvious choice of the first film’s director Oren Peli was also out due to his responsibilities with his next found footage venture, Area 51. Akiva Goldsman was at one point in consideration but ended up as an Executive Producer instead. Other excellent considerations were Session 9 and The Machinist director Brad Anderson and Wolf Creek director Greg McLean. But for one reason or another, the duties of director fell to mostly newcomer Tod Williams. Who for a reason we’ll never know has only one “d” in his name.
With a director finally in tow, filming began. But the burden of creating a sequel to this low budget, high expectation sequel wouldn’t come without pressure and controversy. Almost month into filming a brand new writers room was assembled after the footage so far had been deemed “disastrous”. Disturbia writer and almost Scream 7 director Christopher Landon was brought in along with writer Tom Pabst and one draft after another, Paramount was finally convinced to convene filming. Though we’d pay good money to see that allegedly terrible footage. Because at the very least you just know it was hilarious. Some of it was likely included in the trailers which featured footage not shown in the film in an attempt to subvert audience expectations.
In the story finally put to screen, we’re treated to a brand new family with an excellent built in excuse to provide us with multiple found footage angles of ghostly happenings. After a succesful Burger King franchise owners San Diego home is ransacked by a mystery burglar or entity, he decides to protect it by installing multiple motion detector cameras throughout his home. There’s even one on their beautiful pool where the ghost hilariously keeps removing the vacuum. The genius tie in to all of this is that the family in peril belongs to the sister of Paranormal Activity’s Katie who makes several appearances in the home as the family deals with their entity. For a film that had so much trouble getting a green light for its story, things tie together rather impeccably.
The family being haunted is a refreshing blend of loveable and flawed humans. Complete with a German Shepard and a newborn baby; a happy go lucky teenager, her horny boyfriend, and a housekeeper with a heart of gold. The mostly likeable dad kind of seems like a dick when he refuses to listen to his families ghost concerns and especially when he fires the loveable housekeeper for trying to protect the home in unconventional ways. Then again, they did come home to her running around the house, holding a newborn baby in one hand and an open flame in the other while reciting incantations in another language. It’s a character juxtaposition between priveledge and family protection that carries an interesting nuance. These feel like normal wealthy people and their reactions to all this were golden. The cast often weren’t aware of the hijinks about to occur. Such as the legendary scene where the entire kitchen jump scared the sh*t out of both Kristi and us.
The genius of the script though comes from the way it ties into the original film. Even dick-face Micah from the original film shows up in the family videos, with his creepy attitude towards Katie’s niece Ali. Eventually this all ties in to the family history of Katie and her sister Kristi’s childhood, when a demon haunted them in their youth. After a few nights of being terrorized by demons, and through some trusty horror movie search engine discovery, Ali learns the truth. Someone at some point in the family made a deal with a demon possibly for wealth or power and now it wants their first born son. Sincerely hoping it wasn’t for those Burger King franchises. This leads to the awful realization that this demon wants to take with it that baby back to Hell. Which, in turn, leads to multiple scenes of audience anguish when the baby starts to levitate from its crib or crawl around unattended. Paranormal Activity 2 was genius in the way it threatened the audience with danger to not only the baby, but the family dog. It was truly a wild experience to sit in an audience and watch those around you freak out as Toby floated around taunting us with threats to them. To Hell with the adult humans. We came to see them die. You leave those cute creatures alone!
When all is said and done after an anarchy fueled shaky cam fest in the basement, we’re left with the realization that these events took place days before the events of the original film. After Katie sent douchebag Micah’s body careening into the camera, she showed up at her sisters residence, snapping necks and stealing babies. Finally the cold, ominous credits would let us know that both Katie and the baby were still missing to this day. Haunting stuff.
This demonic story would release in the Halloween sweet spot of October 22nd of 2010. Backed by more of the same genius marketing featuring guerilla shots of audience members treated to early screenings losing their proverbial shit in night vision. Something that would call back to the release of the original Paranormal Activity and again included a “request a screening in my area” online call to action. Who could blame them? There’s nothing that makes you want to see a movie more than that FOMO feeling of watching others be treated to a Friday night of terror. The marketing was so good in fact that Cinemark theaters pulled a June 2010 trailer for the film, after complaints from Twilight sequel movie goers that the trailer was too frightening. That or someone throwing up and passing out make for the greatest horror movie marketing that a company can hope for.
This all led to Paranormal Activity 2 breaking the record for the biggest midnight opening for an R-rated film and the biggest opening for a horror movie ever at the time. It would garner a similarly insane return on investment as the first film, with a whopping worldwide total of over $175 million dollars. On a budget of $3 million dollars.
Critics were lukewarm. Some complained the sequel didn’t cover any new ground, and others lauded the uptick in eventful scares throughout the film. Audiences enjoyed it at the clip of a “B” CinemaScore and the general feeling at the time was that the film either scared the living crap out of movie goers or was the very definition of a “dumb” sequel. Sure, it was in many ways a retread of what had come before. It was also the pure definition of a horror sequel in that it took a succesful idea and slammed the “holy shit” button a few times, providing a financially backed caffeine boost in contrast to the original.
Moments like the entire freaking kitchen exploding at once or the night vision Royal Rumble at the end felt like a natural progression of what had come before. I remember feeling like it was at once a little silly watching Katie snap a victims neck like she was the Undertaker but simultaneously enjoying the volatility of it all. In many ways it was the definition of a Hollywood sequel for better and worse.
In the end, Paranormal Activity 2 is one of the better sequels in the franchise and solidified itself as a worthy sequel to a pillar of the horror community. No easy feat. Especially when you consider franchise de-railers such as the aforementioned Book of Shadows or franchise killers like Sinister 2.
The job of a first sequel to a horror disruptor is a thankless one. In the case of Paranormal Activity 2, it not only kept interest in the franchise alive and well but impressively fattened the pockets of those involved. And as we all know the franchise thrived afterwards, surviving for five more films of varying degrees of quality. Up to the time of this writing, at least. As we all know you can never under any circumstances assume that a franchise is dead. They always come back for one last scare. Especially when Blumhouse is involved. And that my friends, is what happened to Paranormal Activity 2.
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