From time to time we sneak into theaters and scare the living daylights out of people in these dark, enormous rooms. Also when we are there terrorizing people we stop and check out a new film as we are required to do by our dark overlord. Sickle and I were quite lucky to see the sequel to Sinister. The film was full of Insidious-style jump scares, meaning the kind that actually still kind of scare you because they are done well.
The movie centers around two brothers who are living with their mother in a Buhguul infested home. As he toys with the children’s minds we meet an old friend, now ex-deputy so-&-so trying to defeat an old adversary, the child stealing demon Bauggul. The nature of that adversarial relationship was one of the things that made the movie very interesting, coming off as more of an investigative horror film as opposed to a snuff movie jump scare fest. But don’t worry, the wonderfully demented family killing 8mm film reels are still in the movie and they do not disappoint.
The films are a big pull for me to this movie, as any offering to a fellow underworld being makes me happy… it’s a demon thing. One of the most disturbing things about the Sinister films is these snuff films done by children. I personally appreciate that this movie follows a different vein of the sacrificial video tributes. All of them are unique still and they are a bit more creative this time.
The movie itself is not as dark and brooding as the first one. There are definitely scenes where you get the feeling of the first one, but over all I would say the movie focuses more on telling the story of the family that is being affected. In the first movie they really don’t delve into how Baagoohll can convince these children to kill their families in order to join the cool kids club of homicidal ghost children. This movie focuses on that story because for whatever reason the horror-movies-centering-around-strong-child-characters thing is big right now. The major difference between this movie and others (namely Come Out and Play) is that this film doesn’t make you feel like the kids are just a stupid taboo. The children are dynamic characters and they matter to the story.
Much like Insidious 2 and Annabelle (even though I disliked it) this movie builds on the Sinister mythos and that is always a good thing. Bringing back old characters, learning more about the antagonist, and setting up a future for a horror franchise is something I fully support when the movies are this entertaining! I would suggest seeing Sinister 2 if you liked Sinister, but don’t expect it to be so dark all the time and expect a bit more depth for each character.
Now let’s get to these ratings:
Horror Qualifier: 9/10
Horror Quality: 8/10
Film Quality: 6/10