Sinister 2 Blu-Ray review
Director: Ciarán Foy
Cast: James Ransone, Shannyn Sossamon, Dartanian Sloan, Robert Daniel Sloan
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 97 minutes
Special Features: Deleted Scenes, Extended Kill Films, Making of Sinister 2, Feature Commentary with director Ciarán Foy and Sinister Home Movie – Competition winning short film.
Horror sequels are tricky, especially when the first film was well received. Do you repeat the same formula that you know works and risk boring your audience, or do you strike out in a new direction and hope the audience get on board? Most tend to stick to the mantra ‘if it ain’t broke why fix it?’, however Sinister 2 risks it all by mixing things up.
The first film, released in 2012 saw Ethan Hawke star as true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt, a man who found himself plagued by nightmarish visions after finding an attic full of super-8 videos in his new house, an old murder site. The story was heavily told from his grown-up perspective as he tried in vain to stop his family from becoming the next victims of boogeyman Bughuul. Unfortunately as was revealed at the end, he wasn’t too successful in his mission. The second film switches things up and follows much more closely, the children targeted by Bughuul.
It does have a link to the first film though in the form of James Ransone‘s So & So, the Deputy from the previous movie. Since the climatic events of Sinister, So & So is well and truly a believer in all things Bughuul and is on a one man mission to stop his wave of terror. His latest stop causes him to cross paths with Shannyn Sossamon‘s single mother whose twin sons have caught the eye of a certain Mr. Boogie.
So & So is just as likeable as he was the first time around, Ransone perfectly channelling his inner Deputy Dewey (David Arquette‘s character in the Scream franchise). The inclusion of So & So definitely helps anchor the sequel to the first, but the decision to focus less on the adults and much more on the children adds an interesting and much darker dimension.
Essentially this film is the story of how Bughuul and his children ‘groom’ the next member of the group, and it’s just as disturbing as it sounds. Think The Conjuring meets Children of the Corn. In addition to So & So and Bughuul, back again are the family snuff films which, with the inclusion of man-eating rats, are even bleaker than those featured in its predecessor. These short ‘kill’ trophies add an extra layer to the story, perfectly showcasing that these kids definitely aren’t all right.
On the special features front we have an interesting mixture of Making Of’s, deleted scenes and extended versions of those kill films. The Making Of is a pretty standard affair, as are the deleted scenes; the kill films are a very interesting inclusion, however the fact that there isn’t a ‘play all’ feature makes it a little tedious trying to watch them all in one sitting.
With Sinister 2 director Ciarán Foy takes the old of Scott Derrickson‘s Sinister and morphs it into something new, and given the title – suitably sinister.
Sinister 2 is out to buy on Blu-Ray and DVD now.
