An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2015’s Sinister 2 the sequel to 2012’s Sinister, a movie we reviewed a while back, you can read our explanation/review here.
Following the events of the first film, The Deputy sets off to put an end to the demon Bughuul and runs into a family currently being terrorize by it.
Is it Scary?
Unfortunately Sinister 2 relies too heavily on jump scares to the point where you know exactly when they’re coming. This, along with almost no suspense in the entire movie, makes Sinister 2 not scary after the first few jump scares.
Detailed Plot:
Sinister 2 picks up some time after the first Sinister which we reviewed a while back, you can read that review here.
But if you’ve seen the movie or already read our review of the first Sinister, then you know the movie’s main villain Bughuul: The Eater of Children or “Bugs” for short, uses his own image as gateways to his realm. In the previous film he used 8mm footage to corrupt and bring children to his side and commit familicide. I just found out that’s a word.
In Sinister, prior to his death, main character Ellison realizes that Bughuul spreads by first; corrupting a child, second; scaring the family into moving to a new home, and third; sending the kid to commit the murders in the new home. That’s basically his whole schtick.
So now let’s move on to Sinister 2: No Subtitle
The film opens with a 16mm film (we’ve upgraded) of a family of three propped up like scarecrows in the middle of a cornfield, each wearing a burlap sack. A child’s hand lights the trail of gasoline leading to each of them, burning them alive.
This turns out to be a nightmare of one of our main child characters Dylan (played by Robert Daniel Sloan) or maybe the nightmare was something he’s seen before… hmm. Attempting to fall back asleep he hears creaking from his wardrobe and sees Bug’s face in the darkness. There’s then a jump scare of a scarred kid appearing on his bed.
A title screen pops up and we cut to the Deputy from the first movie (played by James Ransone) entering a confession booth. He’s been promoted to main character in this movie but still doesn’t get a name. Anyway, he tells the priest he’s never had a confession before and needed someone to talk to.
He asks the priest if he believes in evil and the priest recognizes him from the Ellison case. So the deaths of Ellison’s family from the first movie ended up being big news. Big enough that a priest will ignore your claims of evil in the world just so they can get that juicy gossip.
The Deputy tells him he found something otherworldly in the case and asks how to stop it. The priest tells him he can’t stop evil but can protect himself from it.
We cut to Dylan’s family at the supermarket where he’s playing with toy guns with his twin brother Zach (played by Dartanian Sloan). Their mother, Courtney (played by Shannyn Sossamon) appears and tells them to put the toys back. The whole thing seems like a regular trip out for groceries until Courtney sees a suspicious man watching them.
Her suspicions are confirmed when the man passes by again but this time snaps a picture of them with his phone. Judging from Courtney’s special “run for it” word she has with her kids, this isn’t the first time she’s had to run from someone.
The three make a run for it and the suspicious man gives chase. Thinking quickly, Courtney tells the security guard that the man was trying to touch her kids and the guard stops the man. The three get in their car and drive off as the suspicious man talks to someone on the phone confirming Courtney was just there.
The trio arrive home and we see they live next to an abandoned church where Courtney is working on restoring the furniture. Before Dylan goes inside, he looks towards the church as if he is frightened by it but doesn’t say anything.
We fade out and see the property on a newspaper hanging at the Deputy’s home where he is on the phone pretending to be a real estate agent. From his conversation we hear that the property is supposed to be abandoned which raises more questions.
From another article on his board we see the Ellison home was burned down and arson is suspected. From Bug’s picture on his board, we can assume the Deputy is hunting down the homes that were involved in the Bughuul murders, and burning them down in order to stop him from spreading.
Back at the church as Courtney is painting some chairs, she hears clanking coming from behind the altar. When she looks there’s nothing there except an upside down metal pot. We then have an attempt at the jump scare when Dylan appears yelling for his mom informing her dinner is ready.
Before they leave Courtney notices that Dylan is looking at the floor with a concerned look on his face. Although she can’t see it, we see from Dylan’s point of view that blood is forming on the floor. Once again he tells her nothing is wrong and they leave.
That night as Dylan lays in bed, he’s visited by a ghost of a child. Seeing as he knows his name is Milo and his overall “ehh” demeanor about the whole thing, this doesn’t appear to be the first time they’ve met.
Milo convinces Dylan to accompany him to the basement where he brings him to a large chest containing a projector and multiple film reels. As Milo turns on a phonograph, for some creepy ambiance, and starts the film, another ghost kid named Ted shows up. Once again Dylan is completely cool with this. Maybe he sees ghosts kids all the time, I don’t know his life.
Ted gives the two a film reel entitled “Fishing Trip” stating it’s his. By that he means it’s his snuff film of when he killed his family for Bugs. The film shows Ted and his family on a fishing trip but switches to his family hanging upside down from a tree as alligators jump up and kill them.
Before the alligators attack, Dylan closes his eyes and turns away. But Milo grabs his face and forces him to watch. If we remember from the first movie we know the whole point of Dylan watching these films is to corrupt his mind so Bug’s can get him to do a bunch of murdering. Seems like it’s the ghost’s kid’s job to make sure that happens in this movie.
As the film ends, Dylan says they shouldn’t be watching this and runs to his room to hide under the covers. It’s universal knowledge that ghosts can’t get you under covers unless you’re dealing with a grudge ghost.
The following day the Deputy arrives at the house with several gas canisters but soon realizes there actually is a family living there. Courtney runs over to him and accuses him of working for the man that is looking for her. She asks what it will take for the Deputy to report back that he never found her and he responds with coffee so he can explain, as there is a misunderstanding.
We learn the deputy is no longer a deputy and is now a private investigator. This causes Courtney to think he’s investigating some murders that occurred at the church years ago. The Deputy shows her pictures of the markings of Bughuul from the first movie and asks if she’s seen anything like it. She, of course, hasn’t since Bug’s gang is targeting Dylan but the Deputy doesn’t know that.
We also find out that the man Courtney is running from is her husband and she currently has temporary custody of the kids. After she ran from him, a friend of hers who owns the property let her stay in the house and work at the abandoned church.
The Deputy asks if he could return tomorrow to investigate the church and Courtney agrees. That night as the Former Deputy does some research, his computer begins to glitch and multiple articles of the church murder pop up followed by the marking of Bug’s. His computer turns off and as he checks the power supply, Bug’s shows up in the reflection of his screen.
Through the reflection we see Bugs getting closer but disappears when the Deputy sees him. Looking behind him we get another jump scare when the computer turns on blaring a sound with Bug’s symbol on it.
Meanwhile back with Dylan, Milo tries to get him to watch another film but he refuses. A little while later Dylan has a nightmare of his father hitting his mother in a bloodstained home and also sees flashes of the nightmare he had at the start of the film. This time we see that Dylan is the one who lights the family on fire which means his nightmare was a vision of the future.
Dylan wakes up and almost like he is sleepwalking or like he’s been drugged, he stumbles down to the basement where Milo, Ted, and another ghost, Emma, are waiting. Emma gives him a new film reel entitled “Christmas Morning” and Milo tells Dylan that once he watches all the films the nightmares will stop. He conveniently leaves out the part where he kills his family and becomes a slave to Bugs but the deets aren’t important.
The film starts and we see Emma on Christmas morning with her family which cuts to Emma burying her family alive in the snow at night. We see them all freeze to death as the film ends. Milo tries to get Dylan to watch another but he refuses and goes to bed.
The following day Dylan is staring at the ghost kids from his back door when his brother, Zach, pops up saying he can see them too and very aggressively tells Dylan he’s not special. He then pushes Dylan and calls him a pussy. So what the fuck is up with that?
Courtney hears but before she can reprimand him, the Deputy arrives. At the church the Deputy looks for signs of Bug’s influence and hears the same clanking Courtney heard a few days earlier. It turns out to be a rat under a metal pot… that was the payoff.
The deputy hears a sound from behind him and sees the shadows of children. When he points his flashlight they disappear because that’s how shadows work. Lowering it reveals more shadows but when he shines his flashlight again, Bugs appears in a jump scare.
The deputy falls backwards through some boards and, of course, Bugs is now gone but the Deputy does find the mark of Bughuul. This confirms the murders that took place are part of Bughuul’s cycle.
In an attempted jump scare the deputy gets a phone call from a professor Stromberg who has been investigating the cases in the wake of Professor Jonas’s disappearance. Jonas was the professor who helped Ellison in the first movie.
The Deputy asks what happened to Jonas and Stromberg ignores the question telling him to come to his office as Jonas left something unbelievable. He then refuses to tell the Deputy the details over the phone, saying that he can’t risk it.
At the house, Dylan is sitting on the porch when a spider climbs up next to him. Dylan grabs his slingshot and is about to shoot the spider but can’t make himself do it. So I’m not confident Bug’s plan to make him a killer is working.
The Deputy walks over and the two bond over nightmares and what to do with them but they’re interrupted when a truck pulls up onto the lawn. It’s Courtney’s husband, Bag o’ Dicks Clint (played by Lea Coco). Dylan immediately pees himself seeing his father, which screams abuse.
Multiple state trooper trucks pull up and Courtney starts to yell that they can’t take the children without a court order. The Deputy jumps in front and asks the officer in charge for the court order. When he doesn’t produce it the Deputy correctly assumes that the Sheriff doesn’t know what’s going on and the state troopers are assisting in a child abduction.
The state trooper threatens to arrest the Deputy but he tells him arresting him will be big news as he was arrested a few years ago on a capital offense. Something that will bring a lot of attention to the state trooper’s actions which may cause him to lose his job. The state trooper realizes he fucked up and decides to leave which angers Clint.
Before Clint leaves he tells Courtney it isn’t over and calls her a whore. Classy. Courtney thanks the Deputy and then says she needs to leave with the boys. Knowing that moving to a new home will trigger the Bughuul murders, the Deputy tells her to stay and uses the excuse that she’ll be considered a flight risk if she runs now.
Fearing that will cause her to lose her children, Courtney agrees to stay but asks the Deputy to stay till after dinner just in case Clint returns. After dinner she offers to let him sleep on the couch and after Dylan also asks him to stay, the Deputy agrees.
That night while reviewing pictures of the church murders Bughuul pops up in a picture jump scare. Why was the Deputy reviewing the pictures when he already knows Bughuul was behind the murders at the church? Because jump scares!
Hearing the noise, Courtney comes downstairs and asks if he can’t sleep. We next see the two outside drinking and we find out the Deputy was arrested for Ellison’s murder but eventually cleared of the charges.
The two continue to bond while drinking and we get confirmation that Clint beat Dylan, eventually sending him to the emergency room. They eventually kiss but nothing more happens and it’s not important to the story so moving on!
Speaking of Dylan, Milo gets Dylan to watch another film called “Kitchen Remodel” where a family is electrocuted by their son. After the film ends, Dylan nopes out of the viewing party and heads off to bed but we see that Zach was spying on Dylan’s actions.
Milo calls out to Zach revealing he knows he’s hiding and Zach aggressively comes out asking why they chose Dylan instead of himself. After he says he’s better and smarter than Dylan, Milo says if that were true he would have been chosen. Milo then threatens Zach to keep his mouth shut or everyone dies.
The following day the Deputy arrives at Stromberg’s office and we sort of don’t learn anything new. The biggest reveal is that Bughuul doesn’t just spread through images but also any art depicting/referencing the murders.
Stromberg shows the deputy a ham radio and plays a recording of a girl in Norway playing the piano that appeared on the radio in 1973. The girl broadcasted herself playing the piano as she killed her mother in the name of Bughuul. This causes the Deputy to realize that Bughuul targets the children, something we, the audience, already knew. Also we never find out why Stromberg couldn’t tell the Deputy this over the phone.
There’s another jump scare when the ham radio turns on by itself repeating the same sentence the two just said.
Back with Dylan, he is getting his ass handed to him by his own brother. Zach is extremely jealous that the ghost kids picked Dylan instead of him as he wants Dylan to admit that he’s weak and nothing. The ghost kids appear which causes Zach to stop beating the shit out of his brother and he runs off telling them he hates them all.
The ghost kids take this opportunity to tell Dylan that he should do something about his family especially since his mom did nothing to protect him. Later Courtney is icing Dylan’s bruises and instead of apologizing, Zach curses them both out including calling his mom a cunt. What the fuck kid?
That night, after another nightmare, Dylan heads to the basement and tells Milo he doesn’t want to watch another movie. The kids appear and tell him he has to or else Bugs will be pissed.
We see the film entitled “Sunday Service” which shows the murders that happened at the church. It’s also the most elaborate one yet, with Milo drugging his family at church, placing them in a circle, trapping rats in metal pots on their stomachs, and using hot coal to get the rats to chew through his family’s stomach in order to escape. Points for creativity but also, Jesus fucking Christ! No pun intended.
Dylan tells them he doesn’t want to watch anymore but the kids tell him there’s only one more, yet he still refuses. They then revert to using their rotting faces as threats.
Dylan runs from the kids who chase him throughout the house. He eventually runs out of the house and into the church where Bugs is just chilling for some reason. Dylan runs into a room and under a table but the ghost kids find him telling him it’s his last chance to watch the film.
Dylan takes a stand and says he won’t watch anymore as he doesn’t want to be like them. Milo responds it’s fine as the films weren’t meant for him anyway. So why the fuck did this chase just happen? Dylan runs back to the house and sees Zach watching the final film. He tries to stop him but Zach just smacks him and throws him to the ground.
So Bugs’ grand plan was to make Zach think Dylan was the chosen one in order to cause him to hate his family out of jealousy and be willing to kill them. Someone got an ‘A’ in psychology.
The following morning Clint arrives with a court order to take the kids after he paid off a judge to have an emergency hearing without Courtney present. Clint tells her she can either fight him on it and never see the kids again or go with him willingly as he is taking the kids regardless. In the end Courtney has no choice but to leave with him.
That night the Deputy arrives at the house and finds it empty meaning Bugs is about to get his murdering high. He calls Courtney but Clint sends him a message to never call again.
Later the Deputy arrives at Clint’s house to try to warn him but Clint greets him with a shotgun and beats the shit out of him. He tells him if he ever comes back he’ll beat Courtney first and then kill him.
The next day we see the family and Clint outside near the cornfield having a picnic while Zach and the ghosts start recording on a 16mm camera. Zach returns to the family and spikes their lemonade. Feeling like he’s been drugged Dylan grabs his mom’s phone and texts the Deputy for help.
A little while later… that night? It’s dark now so I’m not sure how much time has passed but Zach now has his whole family propped up like scarecrows.
Zach ignites the first trail of gasoline leading to his father, burning Clint alive. Oh no. Not Clint… Anyway the Deputy arrives at Clint’s house, hears the screaming, and sees the smoke coming from the cornfield. As Zach tries to light the second gasoline trail, the Deputy drives his truck straight through the cornfield and rams it into Zach. Which was so surprising it was actually kind of funny.
The Deputy cuts down Courtney and Dylan meanwhile Zach is still alive and perfectly fine. The ghost kids appear and tell Zach to finish the movie. Zach grabs the camera, picks up a sickle, and chases after the family.
The family runs through the cornfield trying to avoid Zach but he jumps out and cuts off most of the Deputy’s hand, leaving him with two fingers. Attempting to swipe at him again the sickle gets stuck and, while he tries to dislodge it, the family make it into the home.
Inside Courtney tends to the Deputy’s wound while Zach tries to break down the door.
The Deputy, Courtney, and Dylan run upstairs and hide as Zach breaks down the door. The ghost kids appear and help Zach search for the family, which is cheating. There’s another jump scare when ghost Emma appears behind the Deputy but at this point you’re expecting it. The ghosts attack the Deputy pinning him under a desk as Courtney and Dylan run downstairs.
The ghosts shut all the doors around the two and Zach enters the room carrying the camera and the sickle. Before he can kill them the Deputy arrives and uses a golf club to destroy the camera.
Zach runs upstairs hoping to find another camera in the chest of film but finds it empty. The ghost kids appear terrified and tell Zach it’s over and that Bugs is going to be pissed. Bugs appears behind Zach and, with a touch, brings him into his realm and kills him. Courtney runs to the room in time to see Zach dying and the projector going up in flames.
As the fire engulfs the house, Courtney, Dylan, and the Deputy escape the house safely. Later the Deputy stops off at the motel to collect his things while Courtney and Dylan wait in the car. As he’s about to leave the ham radio from earlier magically appears and turns on. The voices of children call out to the deputy and Sinister 2: The Jump Scare Movie ends with one last jump scare.
Review:
Since Sinister 2 is a direct sequel we kind of have to compare it to the really good 2012 Sinister and this makes it’s flaws really apparent. Sinister 2 had way too many jump scares and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but, when the jump scares are in the middle of random scenes with no tension or suspense then it’s a waste.
The entire scene with Professor Stromberg really feels like it was written solely to set up the ham radio jump scare in that scene and the one in the end. In that scene we learn that Bughuul can spread through art but that doesn’t affect the story at all since Bughuul is still spreading though the films. It’s a scene that adds absolutely nothing to the film.
Of course, the first Sinister had the benefit of us not knowing anything about Bughuul and it created a mystery that was terrifying, so Sinister 2 already started off in a bad place. But, the plot of the movie really didn’t help either, I can’t help to think that it would have been more effective following a completely new family haunted by Bughuul with the Deputy showing up at the end trying to save them.
Either way, on it’s own, Sinister 2 isn’t that bad of a movie. The acting is pretty good, the kids can be a little over the top at times though. The logic of the movie makes sense despite a few issues like the ghost kids chasing Dylan despite them not really wanting him to commit the murders.
The twist of the children actually wanting Zach was also well done and hints were dropped all the way from the start. For example in Dylan’s dream, when he burns the family, he’s wearing a red checkered shirt but throughout the entire film, Dylan never wears a red checkered shirt only Zach does.
I’d recommend watching Sinister 2 if you’re looking for a generic by-the-book horror movie to pass the time but only if you’ve already seen the first Sinister. Everyone should watch the first Sinister first and then go into Sinister 2 knowing it won’t be anywhere near as good.
Cast IMDB