'Paranormal Activity 2': An EW Exclusive Q & A with the movie's Katie Featherston

Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesOkay, first things first. SPOILER ALERT! If you don't want to know a few minor things about Paranormal Activity 2, which I saw last night with my colleagues Clark Collis and Owen Gleiberman, read no further. The rest of you, join us after the jump for an interview with Katie Featherston, who starred in last year's Paranormal Activity with Micah Sloat and returns for the new movie.Yep, Katie's back — as both regular nice-girl Katie and scary-ass demon Katie. The morning after Paranormal Activity 2 premiered to U.S. audiences, Featherston rang us up from her home in Southern California to talk about the prequel/sequel (yes, it's both), in which Katie's sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden, whom you might know from 24) as well as Kristi's husband, step-daughter, and baby son get terrorized by a nasty invisible force.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Good morning, Katie. Did you go to the screening at the Arclight last night?

KATIE FEATHERSTON: Yeah, we went and did some interviews and whatnot and came back in the evening when people were lined up. We signed autographs and talked to fans — it was really fun. Last year, people lined up to see the movie, but Micah and I were kind of sequestered. We weren't allowed to hang, and knowing who we were — no one would have cared. So it was the first time that Micah and I got to experience the craziness of people lining up and standing around for hours and being excited. It was really fun.

Did you watch the movie?

I didn't. I'm waiting. I had a sick puppy at home. He was alright, but after my being gone for 10 hours, I was like, No, I gotta go home. I'm seeing it on Friday with a group of friends. We're gonna go rock it out and see it. I've seen parts of it.

The crowd at the screening I attended cheered when you appeared on screen.

Oh, that makes me feel so good. That's really nice. I'm glad that people like me and Micah. I'm just kind of overwhelmed that people were excited to see a second one.

When and how did you find out you'd be back for the prequel/sequel?

I found out … maybe 8 months ago. There were rumors that they were gonna do a sequel, and for a while, I didn't know if they'd room for me to be in it. And then they were like, Hey, we need you! And I was like, Awesome, I'm there! And [Tod] Williams, the director on this one, he was great. Because he respected Oren [Peli, who wrote and director Paranormal Activity] and the process from the first one. He didn't try to come in and take over and make it something different. He said, let me support this. And he really did a wonderful job.

Were you concerned about maintaining the integrity of the original and not going the way of Blair Witch 2?

Yeah. That wasn't really a concern once I talked to everyone, but it was in the very, very beginning. I wanted to make sure that they got it, and that they didn't just want to throw a lot of money at it and hope they got their earnings back.

Well, it looks like you've avoided the Blair Witch 2 curse.

Good, good, good. I will take that!

Micah's in the new movie, but only briefly. It's almost sad to see him because the audience knows what's going to happen to him.

Yeah, bittersweet. Like, Oh! We're happy to see you, but … ohhh, you don't have long. [Laughs]

How was it, reuniting on screen?

I remember the first day Micah and I worked together, it was like, Oh yeah! I remember this! This is awesome. There's a really wonderful familiarity. And the [new cast members] were really fun to work with. It was exciting to share scenes with more people.

You got to play demon Katie again and had to put on that bloody tank top and boxers.

Thank goodness Oren hung on to those things!

Oh, you wore the same ones as the first movie?

Yeah. I think they bought some extra white tank tops, but the shorts were the same. We had a few pairs from the first one. They're Gap shorts and Gap comes out with new things every year. So we were fortunate that Oren was smart enough to keep those in his closet for a year. It was fun. I just stepped right back into the strange demon shoes.