Sinister 2

Sinister 2

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ciaran Foy
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music by Tomandandy
Cinematography Amy Vincent
Edited by Ken Blackhell
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • August 21, 2015 (2015-08-21)
Running time
 97 minutes[2]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million[3][4]
Box office $52.9 million[5]

Sinister 2 is a 2015 American supernatural horror film directed by Ciaran Foy and written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. The sequel to the 2012 film Sinister, the film stars James Ransone, reprising his role from the original film, and Shannyn Sossamon as a mother whose sons are tormented by the ghostly children taken by Bughuul at their rural farmhouse.

The film received a nationwide release on August 21, 2015. The film grossed over $52 million against its reported budget of $10 million.

Plot

The film opens in an identical style to the first movie: a snuff movie depicting a family being hung up like scarecrows in a corn field with sacks over their heads and burned alive when a lighter is thrown into a trail of petrol. 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). He hears rustling in the open wardrobe and a spooky face appears. A ghost bearing a likeness to his twin brother appears.

The Deputy from the first film goes to Confession. He is independently researching the murders connected to Bughuul. He's also burning down the homes where each murder took place before another family can move into them to prevent more murders, including the house where Ellison Oswalt and his family were murdered in the first film. The priest recognises him from "the Oswalt thing." Deputy explains he found something otherworldly and asks the priest for help, who tells him to stay out of it instead.

Courtney works in the church, restoring antiques. Whilst shopping (and her sons are playing with toy guns), a man with sunken eyes seems to stare at Courtney and appears to follow her around the shop. She tells the boys to run (using Rutabaga as a safe word) and the man chases her as she leaves the shop, knocking over a stand. Courtney orders a security guard to stop him. As they drive away, the man is seen on a phone, saying "That's her." to an unknown person, most likely Clint, Courtney's abusive ex-husband who is also the father of her children.

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; eaten alive by alligators while being hung upside-down above a river ("Fishing Trip"), electrocuted in a puddle of water on a kitchen floor ("Kitchen Remodel"), buried alive in the snow on Christmas Day ("Christmas Morning") and strapped to chairs with their mouths forced open and having their teeth mutilated with drills ("Dentist Appointment").

The Deputy arrives at a farmhouse to destroy it, but is interrupted when he realizes Courtney and her sons are living there. Courtney tells him to leave because she thinks he is working with Clint. He convinces her otherwise and tells Courtney he is a private investigator, and she allows him to investigate the deconsecrated church on the property where a gruesome murder took place. She doesn't realize it, but her sons know what happened at the church.

The Deputy is then seen in a hotel room reading newspaper articles on a computer, when he stumbles across one which shows Courtney and Clint on their wedding day. Suddenly, articles about the murder in the church flood the screen, before Bughuul's symbol and a loud buzzing appear and the screen cuts out. When he leans down to collect his bag, the reflection of the screen shows Bughuul standing in the bathroom doorway behind the Deputy. When the Deputy sees it and looks behind him, there is nothing there. Bughuul then appears in the reflection again, before walking forward and putting his finger to his lips. The Deputy slams the laptop screen 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 to proceed. In this scene, it is also revealed that he was arrested as a suspect for the murder of the Oswalts. While he was eventually cleared of the charge, he was subsequently fired for releasing classified information (the names and addresses of the murders he gave to Ellison Oswalt in the first film.)

Courtney wants to leave with the boys but the Deputy advises Courtney not to leave the farmhouse, 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 at the farmhouse on the condition that he doesn't tell anyone where they are, and the two develop a budding romance, talking outside the house while sitting on the swings, and passionately kissing once they return inside.

Deputy meets with a professor who has come into possession of a ham radio that belonged to Professor Jonas from the previous film, who was in contact with Ellison Oswalt and has mysteriously disappeared. The professor said the ham radio first belonged to a Norwegian family who was mysteriously murdered in 1973. The professor plays a recording from the Norwegian family, and after reading out the coordinates of the house, 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, and suddenly, the ham radio bursts to life with a loud buzz, repeating what the Deputy just said over and over again: "It's the kids. He gets the kids." before suddenly cutting out. Deputy then 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 murders which took place in the same Lutheran church on their property: a family is nailed to the floor with bowls placed on their chests, encasing a live rat. When hot coals from a stove are placed on the bowls, the rats burrow through their abdomens to escape the heat, causing them to bleed to death ("Sunday Service"). After Dylan refuses to watch the last movie, the children turn their attention to Zach and abandon Dylan.

Clint arrives with the court ordered custody warrants he didn't have before and Courtney is forced to leave with Zach and Dylan. After finding the farmhouse empty, the Deputy drives to Clint's home to warn them about the danger, but Clint assaults him and threatens him with a gun, telling him if he ever comes back he will shoot. The next day, Zach, as directed by the ghost children, films Dylan learning how to play golf with Clint and Courtney. After realising he and his family have been poisoned, Dylan contacts the Deputy for help. The Deputy immediately leaves his house, and upon arriving at the family home, he sees fire and smoke in the distance. He drives into the cornfield.

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 first and films him as he burns to death. Just as Zach is about to light Dylan on fire, the Deputy arrives and hits Zach with his car. He frees Courtney and Dylan and they flee into the cornfield. However, Zach has survived being hit (thanks to demonic possession) and pursues them through the cornfield with the camera and cuts half the Deputy's fingers off with a swing of a sickle.

Inside the home, the ghost kids try to help Zach find Courtney and Dylan, tearing the house apart and knocking out the Deputy in the process. Just as Zach is about to kill Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy finally manages to break the camera by hitting it with a golf club, thwarting Zach's home movie and breaking the cycle. Searching desperately, Zach tries to search for another camera. With no luck he is then shamed and disgraced by the ghost kids for failing to kill his family. Bughuul appears behind Zach, and as he places his hand on his shoulder Zach's face starts to decay and skeletonize.The house then catches fire as the Deputy, Courtney, and Dylan escape. Courtney is left distraught.

Later, when the Deputy is in his motel room packing his things, he turns and sees the ham radio. Children's voices are heard saying "It's the kids, he gets the kids!". As a young girl's voice whispers "Deputy", Bughuul appears and the scene cuts to 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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9]

Home media

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

Reception

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."[10] Metacritic gives the film a score of 32 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[11] CinemaScore announced that audiences gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

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."[13] MoviePilot also awarded the film 7 out of 10, calling it "one of the most creepiest horror films of the last few years."[14]

References

  1. ↑ Petski, Denise (2015-05-20). "Focus Features Revives Gramercy Pictures Label For Genre Films". Deadline. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  2. ↑ "SINISTER 2 (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2015-07-27. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  3. ↑ Lang, Brent (2015-08-19). "Box Office: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Will Dwarf ‘Hitman: Agent 47,’ ‘American Ultra’". Variety. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  4. ↑ Zumberge, Marianne (2015-08-22). "Box Office: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Handily Beats ‘Sinister 2,’ ‘American Ultra’". Variety. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  5. ↑ "Sinister 2 (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
  6. ↑ Wakeman, Gregory (2013-03-04). "'Sinister' Sequel Announced". Inquisitor. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  7. ↑ "'Sinister 2' Moving Ahead With 'Citadel' Director". The Hollywood Reporter. 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  8. ↑ Gomez, Luis (2014-08-18). "'Sinister 2' begins filming in Chicago this week". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
  9. ↑ Petski, Denise (2015-05-20). "Focus Features Revives Gramercy Pictures Label For Genre Films". deadline.com. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  10. ↑ "Sinister 2". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  11. ↑ "Sinister 2 reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  12. ↑ "‘Compton’ To Cross $100M Today As August Marketplace Chills Out – Late Night B.O. Update". Deadline. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  13. ↑ Brian Formo (August 20, 2015). "Sinister 2 Review". IGN.
  14. ↑ Nick Morin (September 20, 2015). "Sinister 2 review: "Don't see this pile of garbage" - moviepilot.com". moviepilot.com.
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