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Sinister 2 (2015)
When I had originally heard that there was going to be a sequel to
Sinister, one of my favorite horror films, I was pretty excited to say the least. Then, early spring this year, the first official trailer was released. I suddenly felt less enthusiastic about the movie, but I still held on some hope that it could be a decent follow-up to the original, until I finally saw it tonight. I read the signs but ignored the warnings, and my punishment was an astonishingly disappointing sequel.
Sinister 2 takes place some time after the events of the original film and follows Deputy So And So (that's seriously how he's credited in the film). He has become obsessed with tracking down murders and child abductions that could be linked to an ancient pagan deity named Baghuul, who coerces a child into killing their family and takes the child's soul. It leads him to a farmhouse near the site of a mass murder in a church which he expects to find empty. When he arrives at the house, So and So sees that a mother and twin sons have already moved into the house, and one of the twins is the subject of midnight show-and-tell with the ghost kids' kill tapes. From the first ten minutes, I noticed that something felt terribly wrong about this movie. Deputy So and So was nothing more than comic relief in the original film, and, outside of the big plot twist at the end, he can hardly carry more than a scene by himself, let alone an entire movie. While he is a generally likable character, Deputy So and So just isn't cut out to carry an entire film by himself. His character actually made the movie funnier than it was scary, and there was very little to be afraid of in this movie. If you've seen the trailer, and I'm not exaggerating, every single scare is spoiled in the trailer, and there aren't any surprises left for you. It seems like the filmmakers thought that showing Baghuul off as much as possible could make the sequel scarier than the original, but what made the original so terrifying is that Baghuul was just a shadow in the back of the tapes. You rarely saw him for more than just a glance, and it was scary as hell. In
Sinister 2, however, you can practically count the buttons on his black overcoat because he's shown so profusely throughout the movie. Along with a ridiculously over-the-top abusive husband side plot, a weak script and bland direction,
Sinister 2 is one of the biggest disappointments of the year for horror.
2/10
