The good ol' child-in-peril gimmick is the only new thing offered by Tod Williams' follow-up to Oren Peli's 2007 hit.

Like Oren Peli, who created the first film, director Tod Williams keeps the dialogue So-Cal dumb and colorless, which must be part of the scare plan but makes both these movies hard to sit through.

...reaffirms familiar scare tactics...taps into a certain kind of eeriness implicit in the threat to suburban domesticity, which was precisely what made "Poltergeist" so frightening back in the day.

With a barebones plot and not enough paranormal activity to keep things moving, this movie is a dull attempt to recapture the magic of the original. The characters and performances are bland, and there is an inexplicable lack of drama and urgency.