Sinister 2 An Evil Horror Movie But Not For Those Reasons

Sinister was released in 2012, made a lot of money, got decent critical reviews, but otherwise wasn’t particularly memorable. But because of the first one of those elements – that it grossed over $75 million on a budget 25 times less than that – it only made sense for the studio to almost immediately start working on the sequel. Now we have Sinister 2, which has a larger budget, somehow, that continues a trend of bad, cash-grab horror movie sequels. It’s almost a little bit of a surprise that Sinister 2 is a legitimate sequel, and not a prequel, given that the mystery from the first film has already been solved – we know what the evil entity is and how it operates – so the only thing left to do is discover its origin, or something like that. Instead, though, we follow the deputy from the first film (James Ransone), as he investigates a new house where the evil demon-thing, called “Bughuul,” may be wanting to kill another family and steal away a child to consume his soul, because that’s what Bughuul likes to do with its time. That’s not to say that the adult acting is any better. Shannyn Sossamon is a good actor who is flat here. James Ransone had a goofy charm as a supporting character the first time around, but as the lead the act wears thin. Lea Coco is hilariously over-the-top as an abusive father and husband. Actually, there’s a pretty interesting concept at work here, even if the people behind Sinister 2 either didn’t realize it or weren’t good enough at their craft to properly convey it to the audience. Topics like bullying and domestic abuse had the potential to be married to Bughuul – the idea that these sorts of issues could push someone to the breaking point that would cause them to perform horrific acts, using Bughuul as a metaphor. But that never really comes through in the film. The potential is there, but it’s never realized. What we get in its place are jump startles, which are annoying, insulting, and quite frankly frustrating. Instead of building up a strong atmosphere, the filmmakers simply quiet down the music, slowly pan, and then go “boo!” at the audience. Maybe you’ll jump, maybe you won’t, but you’ll soon realize that you weren’t scared; you were simply startled. Sinister 2 is a cynical cash-grab sequel of a horror movie that exists simply because the first film made money. There’s no ambition to tell a good story, there’s little attempt to actually scare the audience, and there’s a lot of potential that’s missed because nobody seemed to care about the film they were making. It’s filled with jump startles, bad acting, and very little that’s worthwhile. While not the worst horror movie of the year, it’s a contender. Bottom Line: Sinister 2 is a bad, unnecessary, and cynical horror movie sequel. Recommendation: Go watch the first Sinister and forget that the sequel exists. [rating=1]