You know what I find really compelling? The budgets for the top two movies this week COMBINED are probably 1/4th of your average slambangerooni Hollywood CG extravaganza. PA2 was about 2 mil and Jackass 3-D was 20 mil.

Think Hollywood will get the message?

Oh and I did actually make it out to see PA2 and while I didn't find it particularly scary, it was pretty sharply put together and had some nice atmospheric touches to it. Found it infinitely more interesting than the first installment, to be sure.

I saw it tonight - PA2 really impressed me for sound design.

Regarding story, it's more of the same from the first film, really, but it's still very well constructed in terms of pacing and elevated stakes.

All I know is, it worked on the audience I saw it with. Sometimes less is more with horror.

Some things I found interesting with regard to the writing: (Slight spoilers.)

1. The franchise still hasn't established any sort of clear story rules. We know that this is a demon, but what are its powers? Its operating procedures are very hazy - sometimes it leaves footprints, but other times it seems to float as a vapor?

2. The "prequel" structure of the second movie sets up a third act that may be very difficult for audience members to completely follow if they haven't seen the first movie. Although this could be deliberate - making a kind of interlocking series of stories that rotate around each other.

3. Like the first movie, the characters in the second movie do things that just simply don't make sense. In this movie, it is weird when one character at a certain point doesn't simply go to a neighbor's house. (Those who have seen the movie will understand.)

Paranormal Activity 2 provides several really good jumps, some minor scares and some very suspenseful moments, but beyond that it is not much. However, if you are looking for that, you pretty much can't go wrong, which may be its appeal.

@Art: Good analysis. Personally it drives me bat-shit crazy when character act in nonsensical fashions. Granted characters have the right to do that, but not over and over again, against all logic. However it hasn't hurt the movie's B.O. at all.

I found both hilarious even though they were supposed to be scary. What I didn't get is if Katie and Micah were in the first movie, how is it they're back and why is Micah alive? And why on earth does Katie always live?

Some parts of it like someone else said were daft, like example why couldn't Ali go to a neighbors house? Why didn't they play back all their footage to see the strange crap that was going on? To me it was really daft in a humorous way.