Director Tod Williams's semi-prequel to Oren Peli's scary original is not as frightening as the first film. Here the predominantly surveillance-camera action follows Katie's sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden) as unexplained phenomena occur in her family's California home after the birth of her son. There are a few loud bangs (the best a terrific moment in the kitchen) and the odd creepy visual (Kristi being pulled down stairs by an unseen force) to enliven the mundane and boring repetition of video events. But the ominous foreboding and brooding intensity of Peli's simpler, more contained original premise are missing. The one interesting aspect finds daughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) enjoying the weirdness enough to dig out the Ouija board, until the incidents become too threatening. Momentum does pick up in the final act when the connection between the two films becomes clearer, but this is mainly a calculated rehash and a far more humdrum horror.

Just as Daniel and Kristi welcome a newborn baby into their home, a demonic presence begins terrorizing them, tearing apart their perfect world and turning it into an inescapable nightmare.