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  1. #1
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    Sinister 2 *REVIEW*

    sinister_two_ver2_xlg.jpg
    SINISTER 2 (2015)
    Starring: James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Robert Daniel Sloan, Dartanian Sloan, Lea Coco, a bunch of undead kids and Nicholas King as "Bughuul"
    Written by: Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill
    Directed by: Ciarán Foy

    Let me take you back 3 years ago, October 2012, a time that made bible-thumping conspiracy theorists feel like the world was ending....again....and I was just enjoying myself with horror movies to come and in October I was looking forward to watching Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, and then I destroyed all of my Silent Hill games and burned down an orphanage because my life meant nothing to me anymore...to make up for that shitty disaster, I snuck in to watch Sinister.

    Now Sinister, the first movie, i thought was pretty good, it's not a great horror film, it restrains itself but it does make up for morbid entertainment quality by watching snuff movies of families getting killed and this somehow leads to a demonic entity or something called Bughuul the eater of children's souls who possesses them to murder their families while filming it all on camera which was a breath of fresh air and a neat idea considering there is a lacking soul in mainstream horror movies and Bughuul succeeds to being a new horror icon...even if he's not in the movie all that much.

    I liked Sinister, even if I didn't feel like it was a GREAT horror movie, it was still GOOD.

    Sinister 2 has been getting a lot of bad criticism lately and it kind of leaves me confused and rather baffled. Is it because it's not as good as the first one? Was it 3 years too late? This sequel is written by two of the same guys that did the first one and they seem to know their stuff. Truth be told, with how baffling the way the last Sinister ended who would have thought there would be anything left to flesh out in a sequel?

    Insidious I feel has suffered a similar fate where the first one was really good, the second one was laughable and makes the ghost not scary by telling us who the ghost is, and Insidious 3 was a prequel because box office.

    Some said they feel this sequel didn't flesh anything out with Bughuul himself, but what more would be needed to flesh out? We already know he's a demonic entity who possesses children to make snuff movies before he kills them and brings them into his snuff film dimension, some even felt the supernatural element sort of ruined the first Sinister because they expected a killer and people hate anything that surprises them unless it's well-written, but Sinister itself is so odd and has such a simple-yet-mysterious world that it really doesn't have many rules which gives it some momentum and potential for fun stuff in whatever sequels it shall spawn.

    How is Sinister 2? This is a key thing that everyone SHOULD ALWAYS DO when going to ANY FILM is to have ZERO EXPECTATIONS. Which is what I had, I had zero expectations going into this movie since i didn't think the first was all that great so to be honest I didn't know what to expect from this sequel except for more fucked up death scenes in the snuff movies and not really knowing what direction the story would take if there was even one to go by.

    Once I did that, I was really surprised how much i really liked this one!

    WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! WARNING!

    In this installment we center on a runaway mom and her two sons who is trying to escape their vicious and abusive father, who just wants to ruin their lives as asshole shit head fathers go played so well you really feel the hatred and anticipating on his death. While the mom and her two sons stay in a house next to an abandoned church, and this house in particular has Bughuul and his twisted undead killer children manipulating one of the boys into a murderous snuff filmmaker for Bughuul's bloodshed. The deputy from the first Sinister is back but he's an ex-deputy in this movie and is on the move going from place-to-place where the Bughuul family murders occurred and to try and stop Bughuul somehow. Bughuul scares some trespassers in his way, the undead killer children are creepier as ever, bloodshed ensues and it gets crazy creepy.

    The writing for this movie, while flawed in some places, does actually do something very good that all horror movies are suppose to do:

    Is it the snuff movies? They're very well done and they get continuously fucked up as the film progresses (there's one where a family is hung upside down over a lake and a fucking alligator comes up and chomps on their heads one-by-one and it actually scare me! I think my favorite is the church scene where rats are eating out of people's insides as they bleed to death which is hardcore), the death scenes in general are deliciously bloody and gruesomely disturbing and won't ever leave you. So that's good.

    Is it the scares? Yes, before you jump to conclusions, there are some jump-scares present that at some times are effective when well-orchestrated, other times they are very unnecessary (there's a scene where the ex-deputy is alone in his hotel room looking through files on his computer, then mysteriously more pictures pop up and then it shuts off, and he can see Bughuul in his computer screen and Bughuul doesn't do anything to him and then KSSSHHH computer comes back on with a Bagull sign written in digital blood appears on his screen) there are at least 4 unnecessary jump scares that you can see coming a mile away and they don't do anything because it's done in a way where you're expecting it and that takes you out of the fun because scares only work when they're unpredictable, and some of these are mostly just recycled scares we saw from the first Sinister which was pretty lazy.

    Is this movie even scary? I think the key element to horror is not only can it be scary but more disturbing and creepy, this sequel is definitely more creepy and disturbing so those elements keep it as a good horror movie, because horror is not always suppose to give anyone a good time, but some of us who are sick bastards and bitches we find fascination in the blood and the unknown and how, well, sinister it can get. So it's not really scary, but more creepy and disturbing.

    The music is deliciously creepy that helps sell the scenes with their icky creepiness.

    The effects are very good to note as well, the scene where the ex-deputy walks through the hall and shines his light on the shadow children getting larger and larger until SURPRISE Bughuul pops up which was well-done, it wasn't scary but still fun to see.

    What really makes this movie work is the characters, yes some of the acting and or awkward lines written in the film stick out like a sore thumb when it's delivered, but the acting does feel very genuine with each character:

    The Mom is an abused wife who is desperate for peace for her sons and herself as well while fighting for their lives at the same time, the ex-deputy is a comedic worry-wart, a seemingly hopeless romantic and very determined to help this family out, the two boys going through their own changes where one of the boys is kind and decent is being bullied into watching the undead children's snuff films showing us how it's unfolding and the other brother getting jealous of him being picked by the demonic ghost kids merely because he's the son that's slowly becoming violent and twisted as their father from watching the abuse which does tend to happen among some children, especially when coming to the knowledge of the family's abusive relationship with their father that comes off very effective and makes you feel really torn, you feel for all these characters and everything they're going through and you really want to see the asshole father die as horribly as possible.

    Bughuul seems to have a little more brief screen time here and there, even though he doesn't do anything but scare people like that old guy you see sitting outside an old gas station, or a bar, or a Slipknot concert, but while he's still going on with his horrible schemes thankfully this movie is doing something right where everyone else is telling it not to which leads me to believe audiences of horror are sorely missing the point on and that's there's not much more back-story or anything about Bughuul being fleshed out.

    While sequels can be useful to tell us more about our slashers or monsters of sorts, while the mythos can be interesting, the bigger issue is that these monsters wouldn't be scary anymore because we know who or what they are and it takes the mystery out of it and without the mystery you don't have anywhere to go but making pointless sequels that just have bloody creative/uncreative deaths like Friday the 13th or Saw franchises. We know enough about Bughuul and his abilities are scary enough, he's an entity that seems unkillable and can be anywhere and it's unknown how he can do this and that's what makes it good for horror standards he's scary as he is.

    If I had to make another nitpick of what's badly done in this movie is the one scene with exposition where the ex-deputy goes to a psychologist, ghostologist or whatever-the-fuck-ologist who tells him about more victims of Bughuul stuff we already know, which I guess was added in in case people who didn't see the first movie would catch on, but it's not handled in a creative way and it does showcase that crappily cliche possessed ham radio that makes two or three appearances, yeah it is a stupid fucking dumb cliche and it's distracting and embarrassing with how lazy the writers would get with their script, but still it didn't ruin the movie for me, it goes by fast and you forget about it soon after, still it felt like it wasn't needed.

    The finale is a doozy that gets super creepy with the kid setting the dad on fire (YEAH!! BURN YOU MOTHERFUCKER!) while filming the scene, then he gets hit with the ex-deputy's car (YES! KIDS GETTING HURT AND OR KILLED IN HORROR MOVIES!) who comes to rescue but not before they go back into the house to fix the deputy's hand after getting his fingers cut off, then the house goes crazy, the camera gets broken which seems to be Bughuul's kill switch, and he takes the bad son away with him and the others get away for another sequel.

    Yeah, it seems dumb, but it's done in such a way that makes me love it more as a supernatural horror flick, and it's also kind of stupid that this film ignores some continuity in the first film, like didn't the camera and film come back after Ethan Hawk burned it all at first? Apparently that doesn't seem to happen here at the end which leads me to think that the writers didn't really know how to make a good ending or to keep their continuity in for a more challenging ending to this sequel but instead it's left on a silly cliffhanger and that's it.

    This seems to have progressed into something a little bit on the negative side than I really wanted it to sound, but to Sinister 2's credit it's at least a different story, it's more dependent on story than suspense I feel and maybe with its restraints being loosened it might contribute to the film losing its way in terms of keeping it scary and like I said the lazy writing is noticeable and distracting at times...

    ....but despite all of those flaws, this is still a good sequel, it's definitely more entertaining than the first movie and it gives you chills as it unfolds, there's some laughs both intentional and not intentional, it falls short of being something with a little more thought put into it, but it has more goodies in it that you can just live with it.

    Sinister 2 was a fun horror ride and a worthy sequel to its predecessor, it has some problems here and there, but it's creepy and gruesome and entertaining so much so that I can't wait for a Sinister 3 and who knows? Maybe the 3rd one will be perfect and hopefully not just a Direct-to-DVD sequel spunker.

    It's effective, it's creepy, it's memorable and gruesomely fun and is definitely not boring in the least which is what a sequel should be like, and it's much better than most of the mainstream horror movies have been in a while since Cabin in the Woods and Insidious.

    7/10

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    Last edited by Toby; 08-23-2015 at 12:29 AM.

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  2. #2
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    Warning may contain spoilers


    Nice review, unfortunately I disagree with most of what you've said about the film.
    I'm not sure what I expected going into see this beyond wanting to be entertained a little bit. Atmosphere was a huge plus for the original film......it had that unsettling, uneasy creepiness about it that the sequel lost altogether. Only chills I got were because the a/c was set a little too low for my liking.
    Never really paid to who wrote either of the films, so definately no expectations there, but the writing was noticably bad in comparison to the first.....but since you say they are the same writers I just may chalk the first one up as a "flash in the pan" and that it hit theaters at the right time. One of the things that I didn't care about was that each of the snuff segments were presented like they were bragging rites...each kid goes "here's mine" really?....it was never presented like that in the original everything had that random feeling to it each just as shocking as the next. Anyone really care which kid did the murder? I know that I didn't, and if you did it wasn't thrown in your face like it was in the sequel. It should have been left as a non-issue, and those that were interested were given enough to easily figure it out. The children were far creepier saying nothing and just holding their finger to their lips...probably another reason I didn't care for this movie.
    Neither film had all that much blood or gore it was more of shock value than anything else and the original did it sooooooo much better than the sequel did. In my opinion they were trying to use Deputy So-and- so as a tool to flesh out Buguul when it truly wasn't needed. Possessed hamradio should have been left on the cutting room floor....mentioned/ seen for a total of possibly 5 minutes tell me something that didn't need to be in the film at all, as well as the professor who apparently has disappeared with no explantion....again who cares? Character wasn't worthy of mentioning in the sequel.
    Overall the sequel lacked any of the atmosphere the original film did which truly killed this film.

    You definately failed to understand this in the film:


    Spoiler...
    Zach wasn't accepted into Bughuul's group of children. Bughuul sucked his soul of any life it had faster than any of the other children because he failed miserably to kill all of his intended victims. Just killing his father wasn't going to cut it


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    Last edited by Necromancer; 08-23-2015 at 06:46 PM.
    Like, so many people out there were trying to track this down. And it just...got delivered on a tweet. What the hell.

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  3. #3
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    7/10? I haven't heard one giood thing about this film until now

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  4. #4
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    Its the highest rating I've seen given to this movie, but if Toby liked it that much all the more power to him.

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    Like, so many people out there were trying to track this down. And it just...got delivered on a tweet. What the hell.

    "The individual's rights will be protected only so long as they don't conflict with the state."






    “Watch your thoughts, they become words;
    watch your words, they become actions;
    watch your actions, they become habits;
    watch your habits, they become character;
    watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Necromancer View Post
    Warning may contain spoilers
    One of the things that I didn't care about was that each of the snuff segments were presented like they were bragging rites...each kid goes "here's mine" really?....it was never presented like that in the original everything had that random feeling to it each just as shocking as the next. Anyone really care which kid did the murder? I know that I didn't, and if you did it wasn't thrown in your face like it was in the sequel.

    You definately failed to understand this in the film:


    Spoiler...
    Zach wasn't accepted into Bughuul's group of children. Bughuul sucked his soul of any life it had faster than any of the other children because he failed miserably to kill all of his intended victims. Just killing his father wasn't going to cut it
    I think with the kids saying "Here's mine" and all those scenes it was the scenes surrounding Dylan and Zach who are the only ones who can see these undead freako children because Bughuul, obviously, and I think the writers were just trying something a little different by showing us the kids' point-of-view and how they reel in one of them for Bughuul to use to murder the family, which I thought was a bit fresh because there's only so much you can do to keep the ghost kids creepy and scary by only flashing them on the screen for a second and not do anything outside of that and I even liked how they were used to find the victims if they were hiding.


    Spoiler...
    I was aware they said that about Zach saying it wasn't enough to murder his dad he had to murder the whole family but Bughuul should have did something else to kill the kid's soul or whatever because he just looked like he's just taking him like the other children, I just kind of accepted it as Bughuul possessing him into the snuff dimension, but thank you for clarifying that.



    Yes, the film as it is has nonsense and idiocy thrown around which makes it funny and then the shocking parts really do hit it home, I don't think it deserves so much hate that it gets, like I said it was at least not boring even if it had moments where it was wasting its time (Doctor Octopus scene and ham radio shite). I just hope the 3rd will be better if there will even be a 3rd one.

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    Last edited by Toby; 08-23-2015 at 07:57 PM.

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  6. #6
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    the one problem i had with the original was that i never found those ghost kids scary. However, whereas i thought in the original, they tried to make the kids too scary, but ultimately fail, this one didn't even try to be scary. At certain junctions, i forgot they were even ghosts lol. Someone touched on it earlier saying that the high point of the first was in the atmosphere, and i agree. It was dark and gritty. This one somehow lost that factor with exception of one or two scenes.

    There were lots of funny moments and i'm not sure many of them were on purpose. The leading male was like a composite of Jim Carrey and Bruce Campbell lol.

    Finally what made me shake my head was the little twist at the end and plot-hole.


    Spoiler...
    so the twist was that the older brother ended up being the chosen one. But the question is why put so much effort into trying to convince the audience that the younger brother is the chosen one? The logic the movie gave was to make the older brother jealous, subsequently driving him over the edge. The problem is, that kid was already a sociopath. I don't think there was any reason do this indirect manipulation. He seems crazy enough to be susceptible to anything. But the film spent so much time exploring the communication between those spectral children and the younger brother that the final revelation made me felt like that whole first half of the film was a waste of time. Also there's that glaring plot-hole where the kid was literally hit by a car, and was somehow able to chase down the family without much effort at all. There was no indications of him being enhance by supernaturalability to my recollection. Worst of these plot hole is...why are they even running from the kid. So he has a knife, are you telling me that there's nothing in the house they can use to combat that 14 year old kid? (chair, broom, at this point even throwing dishes or any kind of effort would have been satisfactory but nope, they decided to run and hide (from a kid who was already injured from being struck by a truck, no less) for some reason. Furthermore it was two adults vs 1 kid! This was prior to the silly ghost-children-machina; Suddenly those phantom tikes were able to manipulate the physical world and move objects around physically. sigh.


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    Last edited by baron; 08-31-2015 at 03:14 AM.

  7. #7
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    The original was better in my opinion. I was reading how the ghost children received too much screen time and I was actually thinking that applied to Baghul. Can you believe it? Yes, I thought Baghul was overused and as an audience we saw too much of his identity/presence in the sequel.

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