Paranormal Activity 2 is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Tod Williams and written by Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst. The film is a prequel to the 2007 film Paranormal Activity, beginning two months before and following up with the events depicted in the original film. It was released in theaters at midnight on October 22, 2010 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and Ireland. An unrated version of the film was also released.

Plot

In August 2006, a burglary occurs at the home of Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and Daniel Rey (Brian Boland), trashing their house and leaving only their infant son Hunter s bedroom untouched. The only thing stolen is a necklace that Kristi s sister, Katie, gave to her. Martine, the Latin American family housekeeper and nanny, senses evil spirits in the house and burns sage to rid the house of them, and Daniel fires her for doing so. Kristi also believes that their home is haunted, and she and Katie talk about being tormented by a demon when they were children. Daniel, however, initially dismisses her claim despite footage of strange occurrences around the house. Daniel s daughter from a prior marriage, Ali (Molly Ephraim), begins investigating the mysterious happenings; she discovers that humans can make deals with demons for wealth or power by forfeiting the soul of their first-born son, but if the deal is not fulfilled, the demon will stick to the family until another son is born—Hunter was the first male to be born on Kristi s side since the 1930s.

The violence escalates, as the family s German shepherd, Abby, is attacked by the demon and apparently suffers from a seizure. As Daniel and Ali take Abby to the veterinarian, Kristi is attacked and dragged into the basement by the demon, possessing her. The following day, Ali is left home with Kristi, unaware she is possessed. Soon, Ali hears a scratch sound in the basement door and opens it to find scratches and sees a word, meus (Latin for Mine ), etched into it. A strange bite mark on her leg and the footage of Kristi’s attack motivates Daniel to re-hire Martine, who prepares a cross to exorcise the demon; Kristi will have no memory of having been possessed. Daniel goes to pass the demon onto Katie so that Kristi and Hunter will be saved, despite Ali s pleas not to.

That night, when Daniel tries to use the cross on Kristi, she attacks him and the houselights all go out. Using the handheld camera s night vision, he walks around the shaking house into the basement where he is attacked by Kristi; he retaliates against her with the cross, causing her to collapse. Daniel puts Kristi to bed and burns a photo of a young Katie, passing the demon onto her. Three weeks later, Katie visits and explains that strange things have begun happening at her house. On October 9, a night after Micah is killed, a possessed and bloodstained Katie breaks into the Rey house, kills Daniel and Kristi and then takes Hunter with her. Ali comes home from a school trip to find the corpses, and Katie and Hunter s whereabouts remain unknown.

Cast

• Sprague Grayden as Kristi Rey
• Brian Boland as Daniel Rey, Kristi s husband
• Molly Ephraim as Ali Rey, Dan s daughter
• Katie Featherston as Katie, Kristi s older sister
• Micah Sloat as Micah
• Seth Ginsberg as Brad, boyfriend of Ali
• Vivis Cortez as Martine, the nanny / housekeeper
• Jackson Xenia Prieto and William Juan Prieto as Hunter Rey, Dan and Kristi s infant son

Production

Paramount and DreamWorks hired screenwriter Michael R. Perry to create Paranormal Activity 2. Oren Peli, the director of the first film, served as a producer for this prequel. Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, was initially hired to direct the prequel; however, Lions Gate Entertainment exercised a clause in Greutert s contract to have him direct the final film in the Saw franchise. Other directors considered to replace him before Tod Williams included Brian De Palma, Akiva Goldsman, Brad Anderson, and Greg McLean. Both of the actors from the first film, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, reprise their roles in the prequel. Tod Williams directed Paranormal Activity 2, which started production in May 2010 and finished filming in only three weeks.

Marketing

In a special promotion set up by the film s producers, participants had a chance to win a free movie ticket if they were in the top twenty cities to demand the film, via Eventful.com. The teaser trailer was seen with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse upon its release on June 30, 2010. Cinemark pulled the trailer from several Texas theaters after receiving complaints that it was too frightening. In Mexico, it was attached to the 3D version of Resident Evil: Afterlife. A second theatrical trailer was released on October 1, 2010. The trailer was attached to Devil, My Soul to Take and Jackass 3D.

Release

The film was released in the United States on October 22, 2010. The film was made available in IMAX format as well as standard.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on reviews from 137 critics, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The consensus states that Paranormal Activity 2 doesn t cover any new ground, but its premise is still scary—and in some respects, it s a better film than the original. On Metacritic, the film has received an weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a grade B.

Artistdirect called it one of the scariest films of all time . Entertainment Weekly said the film blends into what might be called shockpense ; reviewer Owen Gleiberman called it a shivery-skillful, highly worthy fear-factor sequel and wrote, The images all point down, which is subtly disquieting, and each one is composed with enough wide-angle space and distance, and enough nooks and crannies, so that even when nothing is happening, the often dead-silent shots tend to grow scarier the more you look at them… It made me jump, sweat, and chew my fingernails. Roger Ebert, who awarded the original film three and a half stars, awarded Paranormal Activity 2 one-and-a-half out of a possible four.

Box office

Paranormal Activity 2 broke the record for biggest midnight gross for an R-rated film with $6.3 million, beating the previous record-holder Watchmen by $4.6 million, and broke the record for biggest opening for a horror movie of all time. On its opening day, Paranormal Activity 2 placed number one at the box office, making $20,100,000 and finished with a total of $41,500,000 estimated over the weekend, placing first at the box office. It has currently grossed $84,752,907 in North America and $92,759,125 overseas, giving the film a worldwide total of $177,512,032.

Home media

Paranormal Activity 2 was released on DVD/Blu-ray and video on demand/pay-per-view on February 8, 2011, and includes an unrated director s cut and deleted scenes. Paranormal Activity 2 was placed at #1 for top Blu-ray and rental sales for its first week of being out.

The deleted scene from Paranormal Activity 2 titled Hunter is available in Paranormal Activity 2: Unrated Director s Cut.

Sequels

Paranormal Activity 3 is a 2011 American supernatural horror film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It is the third film of the Paranormal Activity series and serves as a prequel, set 18 years prior to the events of the first two films. It was released in theaters on October 21, 2011.

The fourth installment, Paranormal Activity 4, was released on October 18, 2012 in the United States. It was planned to take place four years after the events of Paranormal Activity 3. Katie and Hunter have reappeared and live in a house across the street from Alex and Wyatt. Alex and her family begin experiencing paranormal events taking place in their own home. Toby is mentioned once in the film, said by Ben. Although a box office success, Paranormal Activity 4 was a critical failure.

A fifth film, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and sixth film, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, were released in 2014 and 2015 respectively. A seventh film, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, was released in 2021.

Year	2010
ReleaseDate	2010-10-22
RuntimeMins	91
RuntimeStr	1h 31min
Plot	After experiencing what they think are a series of “break-ins”, a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem.
Awards	Awards, 1 win & 2 nominations
Directors	Tod Williams
Writers	Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon, Tom Pabst
Stars	Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Molly Ephraim
Produced by	Jason Blum, Akiva Goldsman, Oren Peli, Steven Schneider, Jeanette Volturno
Cinematography by	Michael Simmonds
Film Editing by	Gregory Plotkin
Casting By	Michael Hothorn, Terri Taylor
Production Design by	Jennifer Spence
Costume Design by	Kristin M. Burke
Makeup Department	Joe Badiali, Danielle Barkat, Robert Hall, Dalton Kutsch, J.J. Poff, Erik Porn, Eleanor Sabaduquia, Daniele Tirinnanzi
Production Management	Kirby Adams, Ralph Bertelle, Rick Osako, Richard Stirling
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	James Moran, Marc Newland, James Moran
Art Department	Gerald Donahoe, Niko Hovartos, Brendan Maze, Elizabeth R. Rosenbaum, German Velasco
Sound Department	Mark Binder, Peter Brown, Rich Crescenti, Alexander Gruzdev, Justin Herman, Matthew Iadarola, Mark Lanza, Tim D. Lloyd, Zsolt Magyar, Jared Marshack, Stacey Michaels, James Moriana, Doug Mountain, Chris Navarro, Lyndsey Schenk, Nick Shaffer, Carrie Sheldon, Ken Steiger, Jason Stevens, Brett Voss, Jeffrey Wilhoit, Ryan Young
Special Effects by	Joe Badiali, Gary D. Bierend, Mark Gullesserian
Visual Effects by	Rob Blue, Mark A.Z. Dippé, Michelle Eisenreich, Justin Jones, Michael Kennedy, Shira Mandel Kluger, Daniel Mellitz, Jack Mullins, Jason Pomerantz, Ron South, Derek Zavada
Stunts	Steve Blalock, Jennifer Caputo, Meegan Godfrey, Nikki Hester-Jose, Craig Jensen, Chris J. King, Michael R. King, Rob King, Paul Lacovara, J.J. Perry, Heidi Germaine Schnappauf, Dennis Scott, Ator Tamras
Camera and Electrical Department	Amy Ecklund, Paul Farley, Bryan Gilbert, Jordan C. Kadovitz, Damon Liebowitz, Oliver Mancebo, Dino Parks, Robby Terry, Victoria Tidmarch, Kevin Tiesiera, Derek Touvell
Casting Department	Jason Fedusenko, Kimberly Graham
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Alejandro M. Hernandez, Michelle Liu, Sami Martin Sarmiento
Editorial Department	Phillip Dawe, Joel Griffen, Mark Griffith, George Koran, Matt Maddox, Ravi Malhotra, Kenneth Marsten, Harry Muller, Ken O Keefe, Bill Schultz, Daniel Sessoms
Location Management	David Thornsberry
Script and Continuity Department	Nancy Solomon, Babette Stith, Diane Weiss
Transportation Department	James G. Brill, Henry Canon, Bob Cope, William Cope, Jason Messersmith
Additional Crew	Laura Altmann, Steve Berens, Laura Caulfield, Nicki Cortese, Bryant Duncan, Danny Giles, Lynn Johnson, Jessica Kivnik, Jennifer Levine, Megan Lurty, Jessica Malanaphy, Kate McCarthy, Spencer Medof, Britt Poulton, Carlo Pratto, Hannah Rabkin, Tim Rogers, Erin Vitali, Kendra Rasmussen
Thanks	Todd Adrian
Genres	Horror, Mystery
Companies	Paramount Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Solana Films
Countries	USA
Languages	English, Spanish
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	5.7
ImDbRatingVotes	104296
MetacriticRating	53
Keywords	no music,supernatural horror,found footage,ends with text,text narration