Sinister 2

Starring: James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Robert Daniel Sloan, Dartanian Sloan, Tate Ellington, John Beasley
Directed by: Ciaran Foy
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A mother (Shannyn Sossamon) and her children move into a house haunted by an evil presence.

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed the original Sinister- it was certainly a great example of a solid, entertaining horror movie that rose above the average genre flick. The sequel takes the approach of, "Let's do the exact same thing again, but you know, worse." Any goodwill from the first film was squandered here. This is a disappointing sequel that I hope slams the brakes on this wannabe franchise. Unfortunately, with as cheap as these films are to make, it wouldn't surprise me if we get more.

Sinister 2 follows a nearly identical path to the same movie. Sure, the characters are different and we get to learn more about the boogeyman haunting the family. Big deal. This movie is predictable and offers nothing that we haven't seen dozens of times before. The first film at least attempted to put a new spin on the same old story. You could have called this movie anything and it would have been fine- there's not much distinctly unique to the Sinister franchise. At its heart, this is a film about a family who moves into a haunted house and suffers as a result of the malevolent forces there. We've seen that hundreds of times before, including the original film. While that at least felt mildly fresh, the story has gotten stale very quickly.

Now, I will give this film credit for creating some truly disturbing images. By showing grizzly murders on old film, it does lend a realistic, believable quality to the story. The films are obviously fiction, but they are filmed in a cheap, amateur way that makes them feel more authentic than anything the slick Hollywood production around them can offer up. That is the film's single biggest strength and most unique aspect. If you absolutely love that aspect of the movie, maybe you'll like Sinister 2. If you understand that while it's cool, it doesn't make up for a complete lack of story and character development around those films, then you'll probably dislike this film as much as I did.

Ethan Hawke was one of the highlights of the original film. He might not be a mega star, but he's talented enough to give the film credibility. This time around, our main character is James Ransone. I have no idea who he is- obviously he was a supporting character in the first film, but he was totally forgettable. I can't imagine why they decided to make him the central character this time around. His performance was forced and very often terrible. He might work in a supporting role (not that I remember him), but he absolutely drowns in the lead. I disliked him and his character immensely. I was mildly optimistic about Shannyn Sossamon. I have no idea where she's been the last decade, but she has some talent. Unfortunately, she has little to do outside of the horror movie mom role. There's a few scenes where she tries to protect her kids against her ex-husband that were decent, but truly, anyone could have played this role. I liked seeing Tate Ellington because he's good on "Quantico", but he adds very little to the film. The entire cast felt like it was assembled as quickly and cheaply as possible. That hurts the film immensely.

While the film did create a creepy atmosphere with the old home movies, most of the scares are fairly disappointing. The movie relies on jump scares way, way too much. It certainly makes you jump in the moment (and was uncomfortable), but it's such a cheap, desperate way to generate scares. It's what you do when you have no creativity or vision. It's a disposable scare that creates no lasting memory outside of frustration and anger. The movie relies on those too much. Outside of that, besides the creepy films, there wasn't much else to offer. That is a failure for a horror film.

I enjoyed the first film, so I was rooting for Sinister 2. When you replace the cast with low talent, when you replace director Scott Derrickson with an inexperienced director, when you tell the same story again in a slightly different way, the end result is going to be bad. This is a very bad sequel and I'm hoping it was bad enough that we don't go to the well for a third time. I'm not hopeful it would get any better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister