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Shannyn Sossamon is a mother in peril from two different directions in the horror sequel Sinister 2
B-All too often, horror sequels are nearly exact remakes of the original film with a few new faces on hand to replace the casualties from the first film. Surprisingly, Sinister 2 actually adds some new twists to a fairly original and creepy concept from the first movie. Not surprisingly, the finale loses most of the originality and instead relies on tired old genre cliches.
In the original film, Ethan Hawke was a true crime writer who discovered that the killings he was researching were the work of a demon called Bughul that possessed children and caused them to murder their families. In Sinister 2, a sheriff’s deputy (James Ransone) who helped Hawke out in the original film, has taken up the pursuit of Bughul. He learns that Bughul’s latest targets are Courtney Collins (Shannyn Sossamon) and her twin sons Dylan and Zach (played by actual twins, Robert Daniel Sloan and Dartanian Sloan). Courtney’s also got more human problems to deal with, an abusive ex-husband (Lea Coco), who’s trying to regain custody of his sons.
Sinister 2 builds on the original movie by adding real world menace in the form of a sadistic father plus some genuine mystery by giving the family in peril twin children, either of whom might be the next target for Bughul. Director Ciaran Foy also keeps the most effective gimmick from the earlier movie, the showing of earlier Bughul-inspired killings by means of primitive 8mm recordings of other families meeting their demises, often in gruesomely inventive manners. When added to some judicious use of jump scares, the result is a horror film that’s genuinely unsettling and hard to predict for most of its length, despite some new elements (like a possessed ham radio) that flat-out fail. James Ransone provides a rare example of a comic sidekick who works well when elevated to leading man status in the sequel, and the Sloan twins are also effective and credible. Unfortunately, the final showdown is extremely disappointing, as Foy resorts to a standard chase sequence followed by a ridiculously dumb, conventional ending. For about 90 percent of the movie, however, Sinister 2 is considerably more sinister than you’d expect from a knockoff horror sequel.
In this scene, James Ransone learns more than he wants to about the history of Bughul. Our full review of Sinister 2 is now available on Silver Screen Cinema.
Photo credit: “Shannyn Sossamon a MIFF Awards 2013” by MIFF Awards (Own Work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], By Wikimedia Commons
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