Short Take: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

I saw Tod Williams' Paranormal Activity 2 last Friday and I found it creepy and effective just like the first, but more in a "been there, done that" sort of way. 
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It's shot and composed very much in the spirit of the original, takes its time getting to the meat of things and throws a few wrinkles in for good measure, but if you're asking me, it doesn't shake things up enough and lives firmly in the shadow of its predecessor for the entirety.
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Doors creak open, Google searches are made and all manner of things go bump in the night, but with the exception of those pesky kitchen drawers, there isn't a trick up its sleeve that skews from the realm of predictability. 
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With Oren Peli's micro-budgeted original, the strange, paranormal occurrences were frighteningly real and yet obscure, occasionally blurring the line between night-lensed mockumentary and startling lost footage. It was a discovery, an effective flash in the pan - here, it hardly makes a spark. [C]