Sinister 2 Review: MR BOOGIEEEEEEEE

Director: Ciaran Foy.
Starring: Shannyn Sossamon, James Ransone, Robert Daniel Sloan, Dartanian Sloan.
Rating: ❤❤❤❤

Sinister 2 just came out in my country, and I actually thought of skipping the review because it came out weeks ago in the rest of the world, but I have a lot of things to say about it. So here I am.

Sequels, especially in the horror genre, tend to be terrible with a few magical exceptions here and there (e.g. Scream 2 is not bad, guys. The only thing is that they killed Randy, WHY GOD WHY). Luckily, Sinister 2 falls in this magical group of sequels that are actually good.

Let me start by saying that I love Sinister. This whole concept of a pagan deity named Bughuul (best known as Mr. Boogie) who drives children to kill their families and then take said child into his realm to consume their souls is totally my thing. I’m completely sold for these types of stories.

Sinister 2 takes off after the murder of Ellison Oswalt and his family. Now we have a mother (Courtney) and her twin sons, Dylan and Zach. Deputy so-and-so comes back for the sequel as he has been researching the murders connected to Bughuul, and is burning down the houses where the murders took place in order to stop the chain of murders. Turns out that Courtney and the boys are living in one of the houses on the “to burn” list.

Dylan is having nightmares, and is visited by a group of ghostly children who bring him to the basement to show him the home videos of the murders of their families… and so it begins.

The home videos from Sinister were great but this time they were ten times more awesome and bloody and honestly, at one point I said to myself “man, I would have never thought of something like that!” The “Fish Trip” one was my favourites, by the way, though I have to make a special mention to the “Sunday Service” video because using a torture method from the medieval times was a perfect touch. I salute the writers.

One thing I want to note is that Mr. Boogie is not the bad guy. No, I’m not trying to excuse an entity that loves corrupting children and then eats their souls, but seriously, the monster here is the father of the kids. Abusive, corrupt, and violent. That son of a bitch got what he deserved so honestly, it is not a death I would ever cry over. In a way I think we should thank Bughuul for that so… yeah, thanks, man.

Among my favourite things from the first movie are the cinematography and those perfect shots that make me pause every time just to admire them. For real. And the best thing is, Sinister 2 has a lot of those as well! The camera movements were to die for; I kinda feel I learned a lot about camera techniques with this one. (Is it ok to say I had a visual orgasm? Whatever, I just did).

And to make those shots perfect, comes the sound design. There was one moment in particular where I felt like shouting “praise the sound designers!” (but I didn’t because I’m not a horrible person who shouts in the cinema), because the lighting, camera movement, and the sound were absolutely perfect, and really got me into the scene. Extra points for that.

It’s also the small details that made this movie as good as the first one – like the colours of the boys’ shirts, which in one of Dylan’s nightmares is a very important detail of foreshadowing.

The cherry on top of this bloody cake is that it shows what happens when you don’t follow Mr. Boogie’s orders, and your murder movie is not completed. To be honest, that never crossed my mind. I like that it was included here because it’s a damn good question, and it makes this movie different from the first one (let’s be real: one of the biggest mistakes of sequels is that the same things that happened in the first movie happen AGAIN and the ending is the damn same). Poor kid, though. But not really – because he was a bully just like his dad. But poor kid.

In short: it’s very well written, very well made, every character has a purpose, and it’s worth the watch. Who doesn’t like a horror movie with spooky children? Come on.

And thank heaven there were no snakes on this one, so I was able to enjoy this movie without any panic or anxiety attacks. Bless.

You can find Adrienne on Twitter at @AdrienneTyler.