Paranormal Activity 2

I have seen the original Paranormal Activity and I thoroughly enjoyed the intensity of the mood and the subtle, creepy occurrences that led to a great climax. This sequel ties into the original and builds on its suspense and creepiness in all of the best ways.

For those of you that state, "this movie is not scary" or some such jargon, you should know that this movie is not your typical horror movie. This kind of horror is the kind that requires an attention span greater than that of a five year old suffering from ADD, it also requires close attention to details. The images of the rooms are not quite as they appear if you pay close attention. That is all I will say so as to avoid spoiling any of the movie for anyone reading this review.

The story, as stated, ties into the original quite well. The characters are well developed and they really draw you into their story. The camera, as with the first, resembles homemade video footage. In addition to this there is also footage from security cameras placed at various points throughout the property/house. . This is generally fairly effective in regard to building the viewers sense of anticipation and tension, although at a few points in the film I found myself wishing that the camera was steadier. This is a minor complaint and more often than not I found myself pasted to the screen, holding my breath and waiting with anticipation to see how the story would unfold.

The acting is fairly well done as well. I don't know what other people are talking about when they complain about it. The actors did an amazing job at capturing the "real" feel of the characters in the movie and I have no complaints whatsoever in this regard.

There are scares to be had here but if you're looking for something like Insidious or other movies that rely on "jump out at you" scares then you will likely be disappointed. The scares here are the kind that make the viewer feel unsettled and sends shivers up the spine of those who still have some form of an imagination left.

I recommend to those who wish to see this movie that they bring with them a modicum of patience and an active imagination. The more active your imagination is the more fun you will have watching this.

There really isn't much else I can say without wrecking the movie, suffice to say that if you're looking for an unsettling ghost movie that slowly builds suspense than this movie will mostly likely be for you. If you are of the frame of mind that a horror movie needs gore, blunt and overdone scare tactics and nudity then this movie will not be for you.

I also recommend viewing the first Paranormal Activity before viewing this one because knowledge of the first one makes this movie even more unsettling.

Scale of 1-10: 8.5

Cannibal Holocaust

Where to begin..

The plot is probably already known to whoever is reading this so I won't waste words explaining it. Suffice to say that I was wholly unimpressed with it. It was not creative nor original. I was not compelled to think about society and it's morals, rather, I was compelled to think about society in regard to how one could possibly call this amateur attempt at film-making a "movie".

Acting: What acting? I am all for attempting to capture realism and so forth in a movie but I am appalled that some other reviewers deemed the acting anything more than abysmal. It felt as if the actors were reading their lines off of a TelePrompter rather than having memorized them and recited them with passion and conviction.

Dialogue: Let me start out with this statement: I do enjoy 80's action movies and so forth and as such I don't mind corny one-liners, somewhat cheesy, bad dialog and what not. This movie elevated the definition of cheesy to new extremes. The dialog sounded like a fourteen year old who has a D for a grade in English class had written it. Normally, in a decent movie the dialog is meant to illicit some form of emotion, serve as a vehicle for character and plot development and so on. In this movie, I would say it detracted from the experience. Whenever one of the "actors" (though I find it offensive to put them in the same category as credible actors) reads a line and spews it forth it comes off as contrived and unbelievable, not that it isn't to begin with but that is beside the point.

"Special Effects": Well, if you enjoy movies that don't even qualify as B grade horror than you may enjoy this. I was looking at the display to see how far into the movie I was because though some scenes were brutal, I found them utterly ridiculous and boring. The special effects (if one would go so far as to call them that, as they lacked any semblance of "special" and barely qualified as "effects") were fairly atrocious. I won't spoil the killings for the reader but I WILL say that as stated before, I found them banal and ridiculous.

Entertainment Value: Seeing as I am an individual and tastes vary I won't make any broad claims but I found the movie to be nothing but an exercise in pointlessness. Watching this movie is like watching a child pull the wings off of a fly and then burn the fly and watch it writhe in agony before finally stepping on it. To anyone who finds that entertaining, Its like watching a group of adults who are drunk play "Scene It" and act out the scenes from the movies then drinking some more and attempting to hack apart a chicken. After hacking apart said chicken they then proceed to play with the organs and laugh hysterically whilst trying to appear serious and menacing.

That is what I experienced when watching this movie. Some may see this as a masterpiece but I see it as nothing more than a black hole that sucks viewers in and spits them out 90 minutes later wondering what just happened and lamenting the 90 minutes of their life that was wasted.

Scale of 1-10: 4