Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night-review

Zoinks Scoob! Here we go with another mystery.

If you are like me, and really like the mythos of “Paranormal Activity” you will tend to go out of your way to find whatever you can to fill in the gaps of the story.  That was how I heard about the Japanese spin off movie from 2010.  I think the producers really expected the Japanese audience to just watch the first movie and then immediately go to this one.  In some ways it works, in others in doesn’t.

International student, Haruka Yamano returns to her family in Tokyo.  She is wheelchair bound as she has broken both of her legs in San Diego after a car accident.  Her father is constantly away on business and her brother, Koichi, is constantly playing with the video camera. They discover strange activity begins to occur around Haruka and set up cameras to investigate the matter. That is when things start to get worse for the brother and sister.

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.

In many ways this spin off is a lot like the first “Paranormal Activity” movie.  A lot of the same types of creepy goings on occur and really it doesn’t scare so much this time around.  However, this one also has a few things going for it the other did not.  Since Haruka has both her legs broken it’s fairly disturbing when the demon causes her to get out of bed and awkwardly walk putting the full weight of her body on her legs casts and broken bones.

You dare mess with Go Go Yubari!

There are certainly holes in this story that can’t be ignored.  The reason that Haruka got in a car accident is because when she was in San Diego she hit the possessed Katie with her car killing her.  This is why the demon follows her to Japan.  If that is the case, I don’t think Katie’s whereabouts would be so “unknown,” since she is a greasy spot on the highway. 

Before you die, you see the ring.

Still, the movie takes some unique chances.  There is a Shinto exorcism of the house.  I have never seen one of those on film so that was sort of neat. If you are a big fan of POV horror it’s well worth seeing. It’s much better than The Asylum’s “Paranormal Entity”. Considering, the work they put into it, you can tell they at least tried to make it worthy of the series, even though it’s clearly a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit.