Sinister 2

Plot

The film opens in an identical style to the first movie: a snuff movie depicting a family being hung up like scarecrows with sacks over their heads in a cornfield and burned alive. It is revealed to be the nightmare of nine-year-old Dylan Collins, who is staying in a rural farmhouse next to a deconsecrated Lutheran church, with his twin brother Zach, and their mother Courtney (Shannyn Sossamon).

The Deputy from the first film is researching the murders connected to Bughuul and burning down the homes where each murder took place before another family can move into them, including the house where Ellison Oswalt and his family were murdered in the first film. Dylan is visited nightly by a group of ghostly children, led by a boy named Milo, who coerces him to watch "home movies" of families being murdered in various savage ways, being eaten alive by alligators, being electrocuted in a kitchen, buried alive in the snow on Christmas Day and being strapped to chairs with their mouths forced open and having their teeth mutilated with drills. The Deputy arrives at the farmhouse to destroy it, but realizes Courtney and her sons are living there. He tells Courtney he is a private investigator, and she allows him to investigate the church on the property where a gruesome murder took place. The Deputy later stumbles across an article that shows Courtney and her abusive ex-husband Clint on their wedding day. Suddenly, articles about the church murder flood the screen, before the Deputy sees Bughuul on his laptop. He slams it closed.

Clint shows up at the farmhouse with police to try and take the boys but leaves after the Deputy threatens them, warning them that they need a court order. In this scene, it is also revealed that he was arrested as a suspect for the murder of the Oswalts. While he was cleared of the charge, he was fired for releasing classified information to Ellison. Courtney wants to leave with the boys but the Deputy advises her not to, knowing that each of the murders connected to Bughuul occurred only after the families had fled the homes where the previous murders had occurred. Courtney invites him to stay, and the two develop a budding romance. Deputy meets with a professor who has come into possession of a ham radio that belonged to Professor Jonas from the previous film, who has mysteriously disappeared. The professor said the ham radio first belonged to a Norwegian family who was murdered in 1973. He plays a recording: the young girl's voice on the tape screams "Bughuul can't hear me over your yelling, Mom!" in Norwegian.

Deputy deduces that Bughuul exclusively targets the children of the murdered families. He orders the professor to destroy the ham radio. Zach becomes jealous of the ghostly children who visit Dylan, and insists on having their attention. They show Dylan the video of the church murders. After Dylan refuses to watch the last movie, the children turn their attention to Zach and abandon Dylan. Clint arrives with the court order and Courtney is forced to leave with Zach and Dylan. The Deputy drives to Clint's home to warn them about the danger, but Clint threatens him. The next day, Zach, as directed by the ghost children, films Dylan. After realising he and his family have been poisoned, Dylan contacts the Deputy for help.

Courtney, Dylan, and Clint are drugged and hung on scarecrow posts with sacks over their heads in the cornfield. A possessed Zach lights Clint on fire and films him as he burns to death. Just as Zach is about to light Courtney on fire, the Deputy hits Zach with his car. He frees Courtney and Dylan and they flee into the cornfield. However, Zach survived being hit (thanks to demonic possession) and pursues them. He cuts half the Deputy's fingers off with a sickle.

Inside the home, the ghost kids try to help Zach find Courtney and Dylan. Just as Zach is about to kill Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy manages to break the camera, thwarting Zach's home movie and breaking the cycle. Zach is shamed by the ghost kids for failing to kill his family. Bughuul appears and places his hand on Zach's shoulder. Zach starts to decay and skeletonize. The house catches fire as the Deputy, Courtney, and Dylan escape.

Later, the Deputy sees the ham radio in his motel room. As a young girl's voice whispers "Deputy", Bughuul appears and the screen goes black.

Cast

Production

A sequel to Sinister was announced to be in the works in March 2013, with Scott Derrickson in talks to co-write the script with C. Robert Cargill, but not to direct, as Derrickson did on the first film. On 17 April 2014, it was announced that Ciaran Foy would direct the film, and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Charles Layton, Xavier Marchand, and Patrice Théroux would executive produce the sequel with eOne Entertainment.

Filming

Principal photography began on 19 August 2014, in Chicago. It was shot for six weeks in locations including St. Anne and outside the village of Grant Park.

Marketing

The trailer for the film was uploaded on April 9, 2015 with the song "Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogeyman" being a main piece in the trailer. The song depicts the boogieman as a coward.

Release

On May 20, 2015, Focus Features relaunched their Gramercy Pictures label for action, horror, and science-fiction films. Sinister 2 was one of Gramercy's new releases.

Home media

Sinister 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2016.

Box office

The movie grossed $27,740,955 domestically and $25,141,063 internationally. The film earned $850,000 in ticket sales from late-night showings on Thursday and by the end of its first week, the movie earned $10,542,116, lower than its predecessor which pulled in $18,007,634.

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 13%, based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sinister 2 has a few ingredients that will be familiar to fans of the original; unfortunately, in this slapdash second installment, none of them are scary anymore." Metacritic gives the film a score of 32 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". CinemaScore announced that audiences gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.

IGN awarded it a score of 1 out of 10, saying, "Sinister 2 is an abysmal follow-up to its predecessor. At least that film knew that less is more. And less is scarier." MoviePilot also awarded the film 7 out of 10, calling it "one of the most creepiest horror films of the last few years."