Review of Sinister 2 (2015) by Brucegifford J — 09 Sep 2015

Sinister 2 is a great sequel to the 2012 Sleeper hit Horror film and although it doesn't hold a candle to the first film this movie is still entertaining and a bit scary in certain parts. This sequel takes place three years after the events of the first film.

After the Oswalt family's death the young former deputy so and so is now retired from his job as a sheriff. He is now trying to find clues on the murders that connects between the Oswalt family and other murders that occurred in different places between different families.

Soon when a single mother and her twin sons move to a new house. Deputy so and so soon learns that a family has moved into a new house that he must burn to break the chain of bughuul's killing spree and soon the other twin boy starts watching the super 8 films and Deputy so and so must save the family in order to end bughuul's killing spree.

I just came home from SM with my mom when we watched this film and from what I can tell when I heard that there was a sequel in development already to the 2012 smash Horror film Sinister I was a bit conscious about it at first.

Since the first one was a success I'm sure it didn't need a sequel at all unless the filmmakers keep it true to the spirit of the first film. When I finally got the chance to watch this sequel I was stunned and surprised that it worked really well even though it is nowhere as good as the first film.

Ok Sinister 2 works and despite the flaws I had a blast watching this movie and it is one of the best Horror films of 2015 since Insidious: Chapter 3 and the Poltergeist remake. For a sequel it really worked like a charm and I had at least a great time watching this movie since I watched the first film a couple of times despite that the sequel has a few bumps in the road I still love this movie as much as I enjoy watching the first film.

One of the things I like about this movie is that the movie is slightly different to the first film. I say different because the execution is really different(in a good way) since the first film had a lot of heart stopping suspense and shocking plus disturbing moments the sequel had some of those only combined with lots of disorienting camera tricks and a hypnotic feeling.

The other things I like about this film is that this sequel is more disturbing than the first film. While the original had lots of gruesome and disturbing plus morbid footages. This sequel is much more grotesque and more disturbing plus more shocking than its chilling predecessor.

This time you get to see more of the super 8 footages and some of them are creative and pure disturbing to the bone(lots of disturbing super 8 footages of families getting slaughtered in many ways like electrocution, getting eaten by crocodiles or alligators, families buried alive in the snow, families getting their organs eaten by rats and the shocking and disturbing opening scene where a family is tied like a scarecrow with bags on their heads and are burned alive in a very disturbing and grotesque way) also there are loads of scenes that are very frightening, spooky and creepy at the same time(The creepy and suspenceful scene in the abandoned church, the haunting scene where the kids appear and they are just as creepy as in the first film and the intense and frightening finale with Deputy so and so and the mom and the other twin being chased by the kid from the cornfield until the house while Zach is wielding a Sickle and the shocking sequence where Zach kills his father by burning him alive just like in the beginning of the film where three families are tied in a Scarecrow like position and are burned alive).

The other things I like about this film is the atmosphere in the movie. The film is packed with a much more hypnotic atmosphere in certain parts and the atmosphere is so unsettling and unnerving plus the tone is even much more darker than in the first film.

What else did I forgot to mention, Oh yes there's more. I also love the soundtrack composed by tomandandy(The Strangers and The Hills Have Eyes remake) and it is darker than Christopher Young's soundtrack for the first film and the editing is terrific as well.

One of the major changes in this film is that unlike the first film you don't get to see how the kids do the killings on the family since in the ending of the first film you never find out how the youngest daughter of the Oswalt family killed the entire family.

This time in Sinister 2 you get to see how the dead kids convince the other kid in watching the super 8 footages and how they help the kid kill the family for Bughuul and it was done in a good and creepy way, I love how that was done properly for this sequel without ruining the entire film.

Now like I said the film has a lot of flaws which is why I didn't give this a higher score as the first film even though they are two issues only I still couldn't give it a higher score due to the fact that the issues are very distracting and doesn't fit for the movie at all.

The main issue with this movie is that the movie suffers from pacing issues in the first half of the film because the film moves in a slower pace than the first film and I did not like the use of CGI in certain parts of the film(CGI done in the ghost kids and in the last part where Zach is perished by Bughuul) at least it didn't ruin the movie too much because if this film has more issues then I will give this movie a much more lower score, luckily its just two issues while the rest are clean, very specific and detailed at the same time and done in a proper way which resulted in a good execution even though it doesn't reach the standards of its chilling predecessor.

Now the acting is really good. The only actor who returned from the first film is James Ransone who portrayed Deputy so and so in the previous movie and now in this sequel he's a retired officer. Shannyn Sossamon on the other hand did a good job with her performance in this movie as the mother of the twin boys and she is so gorgeous and still very beautiful even though she's a bit old already but she still has a very youthful and young look after appearing in so many movies.

Director Ciaran Foy did a very good job with his work on this movie and he understands what made the first movie a success and even though he used a few ideas from the first film and just placed something new in the sequel even though it caused issues at least he understands the formula of the first film and he managed to turn the screenplay of Scott Derrickson and Robert C.

Cargill into a very haunting and spooky Horror sequel that delivers some good thrills and disturbing plus shocking moments and it was a smart idea to use a cornfield setting for this movie since this film expands the mythology of Bughuul and the ghost kids.

Overall Sinister 2 is an entertaining and effective sequel that works really well despite its flaws and issues active within the movie and it doesn't hold a candle to the original Sinister. This film gets an 8.

5/10.