"Sinister 2" Film Review

    Before I say anything, I would like to point out that I really enjoyed the first Sinister. Though it was far from perfect, and it did rely on some been-there-done-that horror clichés, it was still subtle enough to moderately scary. So, after hearing that it was getting a sequel, I was psyched.
   And I have to admit I was sorely disappointed.
   There is nothing, I repeat absolutely nothing subtle about this movie at all. The sequence of events was beyond predictable and the jump-scares became so repetitive that you could totally tell when they were going to happen. Even my siblings could point them out, and they don't like horror movies in the first place. This was a major problem for the sequel to a movie that gained its reputation due to subtlety. I was also annoyed by the fact that pretty much every single fucking jumpscare was in the damn trailer. Seriously, you have no idea how much of a pet peeve this is to me. And even when the Super 8 films (AKA the "scariest" parts of the movie) came up, they weren't all that unsettling and didn't come off as any more disturbing than a standard episode of Law and Order.
   In terms of how the characters were constructed, I felt that they weren't so much characters as they were thin cardboard cutouts of tired caricatures. The mother didn't come off as damaged as she should have, the conflict between the brothers was pointless, and even the abusive father didn't come off as believable. It would've been better if they took a more psychological approach to his abuse, but instead they just wrote him as this cocky asshole with no real context to his behavior. When he was shoving mashed potatoes into his son's face, I didn't find myself caring. I could only think, "What does this have to do with anything?" The mom's inner struggle kind of floated on top of the overall conflict and she appeared very much disinterested about everything. The relationships between her sons and the other characters were not very well-developed and little context was presented to back it up to make it in any way believable. The characterization of the two brothers felt extremely half-baked, and the "evil" brother didn't come off as that sadistic in the first place. I mean, he is built up to be stronger and less emotionally damaged than his younger brother, so why is he able to turn against the family so easily? We aren't really given much context to their situation other than the fact that their father abused them, but even so, since it was the younger brother that was abused more severely, wouldn't it have made sense for him to do the killing? It seems kind of unrealistic that a kid would agree to kill his own family "just because".
   Which brings me to the villain: they took what made him scary in the first movie and completely destroyed anything interesting about him. He just kind of stands around in such an obvious manner that his presence is far more annoying than disturbing. His evil "minion" children were the complete opposite of their fresh and subtle counterparts in the previous film, because in this case, their interactions with the two boys made everything far too obvious and boring. They didn't really seem that scary, and as a result the villain didn't seem that scary, either. Now, the movie wastes a lot of time trying to give backstory as to why he exists, but it doesn't really reveal much or establish any kind of motive. I mean, what is his motive? What does he want? Beats me. Children? Even though that would apparently be the case, the way that they execute this in the movie is really vague and confusing. For example (spoiler alert), the older brother eventually gets what's coming to him because the demon gets mad and touches his shoulder, causing him to crumble into gray dust. I believed that this moment demolished a lot of the movie's logic because it implied that he could just do this whenever he felt like it. Therefore, why doesn't he? Why does he need all the freaking Super 8 films when he can simply go around and take the soul of a child if he wants? And before people start arguing that this may only happen if he starts to make a movie but he doesn't finish (exactly what happened in this movie), keep in mind that the story gives the implication that he can only gain the children's soul if they watch the movies and then make one to add to the pile. So if he can only gain possession of their souls upon receiving a completed film reel, then how does it make sense for him to eliminate this rule by just grabbing the soul of the kid anyway? Kind of discredits a lot of what the movie was trying to say.
   Speaking of which, I could not for the life of me try to understand how this movie was trying to set itself apart from the other films. It relied on the exact same scare tactics as the first movie, but other than that, it didn't even feel connected to the first Sinister very much at all. The most "recent" ghost girl from the last movie does not make an appearance, and none of the other dead kids from the previous film show up either. (Do not even attempt to understand why this is, because the movie does not offer any explanation for this nor address at any point.) I understand the point of an "indirect sequel" but this felt so disconnected from the previous movie that nothing was coming off as that interesting, or at least rooted in some type of context. There was nothing to back up anything credible or terrifying about this movie, and as a result it was paper-thin and lukewarm to the maximum. I feel it is also worth mentioning that this movie had the worst fucking cop-out of an ending that I have ever witnessed in a horror film.
   Simply put, this movie was a piece of shit. It was not scary, it was not interesting, and it was completely and utterly half-assed. It should really be called "Sinister Poo" instead of Sinister 2 because it has as much value as the rat shit that makes an appearance about 15 minutes in. Do not waste your time; please find a better movie to watch. I have dozens of other summer movies I could recommend, just look at the list I posted the other day. What's really scary, though, is that it is actually the second worst movie I watched this summer. That is the only thing that puts a chill down my spine. Other than that, nothing else.


Overall rating: 4.5/10