12) Paranormal Activity 2 (2010): The Kitchen Cupboards
2007’s Paranormal Activity was one of those now very rare gems of the horror movie genre – it was original and terrifying, and achieved both of these things by showing an admirable amount of absolutely nothing. There was clearly going to be a second movie, and that movie was always going to have a very hard act to follow. Rather than taking the traditional sequel route, Paranormal Activity 2 made the sensible move of going backwards on the timeline and expanding the backstory of Katie’s very own, alarmingly loyal demon. It cleverly interweaves recognizable moments from the lives of the ill-fated Katie and Micah, and even sets itself up for a fall – sorry – third movie.
Unfortunately, however, Paranormal Activity 2 erred on the side of caution when it came to the actual content of the movie. In attempting to follow the original’s trademark showing of very little, the second movie showed…..very little. The low, ominous sound that accompanies the demon’s presence (probably the most simplistically effective piece of soundtrack since Jaws) is still enough to drive the viewer mad with suspense – but very little ever comes of it, at least until the last twenty minutes. Throughout the first three quarters of the movie, the demon settles for ransacking the house, clattering around a lot, knocking things over, banging some saucepans about, and setting the stove on fire: This isn’t a haunting – this is someone who’s just got up with a monumental hangover. The only exception to these actions is the messing about with the pool cleaner, which itself begs the question as to why? What was the thing intending on doing, killing the family off with a very, very slow growth of algae?
But there is one scene in which something more direct does happen, and there isn’t even ‘the sound’ to warn us.
The security cameras are whirring away as Christie comes into the kitchen, and settles down at the breakfast bar with a coffee and a magazine. She looks around at one point, clearly perturbed, but ignores whatever it was that had caught her attention, and returns to the magazine. The room is silent. Suddenly, every cupboard in the kitchen bursts open with a sound like gunshot. There is nothing immediately terrifying in itself about all the cupboards flying open at once. But if director Tod Williams had been keeping the action low key in order to build up to a decent shock, this scene will do it. It also helps that one of the cupboards is very close to the camera. Most other shots are so far away from the audience that the movie may as well be holding the cushion up for you.
To be entirely fair to the film, the action does increase from this point on. The dog is attacked, and Christie herself is bodily dragged down the stairs and into the basement. But it also becomes rather overblown, going all too quickly to the very extreme of what it can do, so that there can be no more fear or suspense. The immediate aftermath of the cupboards scene sustains the quiet, and the suspense, showing only the stove coming back on and the kettle starting to boil.
Definitely a hangover.
