The digital movie rental deal of the day over at Amazon today is the supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity 2, which is available for rental for only $.99.

This deal is valid only for today, Thursday, May 19, 2011, until midnight PST. Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Instant Video service, you’ll have access to the movie for 24 hours. If you’re interested in purchasing the digital version, the cost is $14.99.

Also, if you’d like to own a physical copy of the movie, the Blu-ray is available for $20.99 (that’s 48% off the list price) and is part of Amazon’s “Buy This DVD and Watch it Instantly” program “” you get the film as a FREE digital rental you can watch immediately when your purchase the physical copy. [The DVD is on sale for 38% off at $18.49, but is not part of the Watch it Instantly program.]

Paranormal Activity 2
Directed by Tod Williams
Starring Sprague Grayden, Katie Featherston, Brian Boland, Molly Ephram, Micah Sloat
Paramount Pictures
Release date: October 22, 2010 

It should be noted that a majority of this review was typed on a smartphone while sitting in the theater waiting for something to happen. Okay not really, but it could have been done that way given the amount of down time viewers have between scary parts of Paranormal Activity 2.

It came as no surprise that after the original ultra-low budget original film made millions worldwide that Hollywood would try to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with a sequel. While others have done the same before with weak results (Blair Witch anyone?), it’s likely Paranormal Activity 2 will get the same reaction as the first… because it IS the same as the first.

The first important detail the previews left out is that this sequel is, for 97% of the film, a prequel to the original film. Set roughly two months prior to the events of the first film, Paranormal Activity 2 follows the Rey family, a married couple with two children, including newborn Hunter. After finding their home in disarray from what they believe to be a break-in, they have several security cameras installed. The film combines the footage from these cameras and a single hand-held camera that switches hands at several points.

Paranormal Activity
UK Edition
Directed by Oren Peli
Starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Icon Home Entertainment
UK Release date: March 22, 2010

Recently Micah and Katie have been aware of strange activity at night in their San Diego home. They have been woken by odd noises, whispers, and the sound of footsteps. Katie has witnessed paranormal activity periodically since she was a child and now it has caught up with her once more. Micah invests in a video camera and over the course of twenty-one nights in the summer of 2006, films the supernatural occurrences in his house.

Initially he puts it down to everyday things like a creaky house or the ice-maker. The first physical evidence he catches on camera — the bedroom door slowly swinging shut, then slowly opening again — he just thinks is cool to watch back on his laptop. But he records more and more evidence as the nights get worse and he begins to realise how serious their problem is. This movie is what was found on his tapes.

Paranormal Activity is one of those rare little indie movies that catches fire and goes on to make a legend of itself, very much like 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. Unfortunately, when a movie is this small, it’s difficult for them to acquire the funding to get a wide theatrical release, if they can get into theaters at all. The movie only cost an astoundingly minuscule $11,000 to make, and was so low-budget, that the studio was once planning to just remake it, but due to the massive reaction to it as is, it could now become something truly special. Right here and right now, we the fans of movies have the chance to help get this new film that’s terrifying audiences all over the place into theaters all over the country as it deserves, instead of just a handful of limited locations like New York and LA.

Here’s the deal: all you have to do is DEMAND the movie in your area by clicking the banner below. You’ll be transported to another site, where you simply enter your zip code, and click the button to demand it, and *poof* that’s all it takes. Ta-da! Paranormal Activity is currently creeping up toward 430,000 demands, so they’re almost half-way home, but with still a long way to go. If we all make this demand and tell all of our friends, then we can all have a little tiny hand in possible history. We all know what Blair Witch did, and that movie is still talked about to this day ten years later. Who knows — in another ten years, you might be able to tell friends that you helped Paranormal Activity become the horror classic that it is!

Click on over for the banner AND to see a couple of trailers. If you haven’t seen the trailer, do so immediately and see what this flick is doing to poor unsuspecting folks.