Watched Paranormal Activity 2 or as I like to call it...

Parasnoremore Activity 2.

Laura and I saw the first one in the theater. For me, it was okay. For Laura, she was freaked out by it. Admittedly, it was a little creepy sometimes, but I think that was more the effect of seeing it in a theater full of people. Laura grabbed at me several times when something would go bang, so she was interested in seeing the sequel.

We rented it and watched it this afternoon.

If you haven't seen either Paranormal Activities, the story goes like this. Both movies are presented as if they are found footage of real events, but actually actors portray the real people. The first movie centered around Katie and Micah (pronounced Mee-cah), who were being disturbed by some sort of ghost in their house. Micah is, of course, skeptical, but he buys a video camera and sets it up in the bedroom to film themselves sleeping. You see time lapsed videos of some weird stuff going on, like Katie getting up and standing by the bed for over two hours.

Spoiler Alert....

The first movie ends with Micah getting killed by a possessed Katie. In the second film, the action takes place a little bit before the first movie's events. Katie's sister, Kristi, who has a one-year-old boy, along with a husband and a step daughter, is being bothered by some strange events in her house.

It's a pretty expensive house with a pool so when someone breaks in and trashes the house, but only takes Kristi's necklace that her sister gave her, the Dad does what any rational person does, he has a whole house DVR surveillance system installed. Logic would tell you that a normal person would probably get a surveillance system that is only tripped by movement, but these babies film 24 hours a day!

So things start to get a little weird, but my God does it take a long time to get there! You see multiple shots every night of the front yard, the pool area, the living room and the upstairs baby room.

Every night goes like this:

(Cue quiet noises of the house and outside)

The front yard camera (nothing happens)

The back yard camera (nothing happens)

The kitchen camera (nothing happens)

The living room camera (nothing happens)

The baby's room camera (nothing happens at first)

Then something weird will happen like the baby stands up and looks at something that isn't there, or a door will open, or the dog will bark at something that isn't there.

After a while of this, I almost fell asleep with all the soothing sounds of night.

The movie has a "script", but you could tell a lot of the dialogue was improvised. I mean, some of the Dad's dialogue is awful. He's told about some weird stuff going on, but he doesn't believe it. He always says things like "That's the last I want to hear on the subject!"

Their live-in nanny, a Hispanic old lady who can understand English, but doesn't speak it for reason, senses some bad spirits in the house, so she starts praying and making signs. The Dad is not down with her burning some strong incense to keep spirits out of the house, so he fires her.

All the while, weird stuff is going on and I'm practically yelling at the screen, "Why in the hell did you install that whole house DVD if you're not going to use it!?"

Finally, the teenage daughter shows her Dad some of the footage of weird stuff happening, but even after that, the family checks the DVR sporadically. If this was my house and weird things were afoot, I would be checking that puppy every freaking day!

At one point, the daughter shows her Dad some of the weird stuff. She asks him, "Now do you believe me?" Even after this, they still miss a lot of the weird stuff. The plot takes a rather odd turn when one of the members of the house gets possessed and there is something about a deal with the devil that would mean that the first born son would be taken. Even after these details, no one things to call in some paranormal investigators.

All in all, it was an okay movie with about 2 whole minutes of some freaky stuff. I don't think that's worth the 90 minutes of improvised dialogue.

Playing Video Games With Dad Builds Better Daughters

Here's an article about how girls that played video games, especial with their Dads, were better behaved, felt more connected to their families, felt less aggressive, and demonstrated decreased levels of internalizing, which can lead to depression. Granted, the study was for girls ages 11 to 16 and Julia's been playing for two years now, but it's time well spent!

Playing Video Games With Dad Builds Better Daughters