“…unfortunately, the actual Bughuul isn’t as scary as the idea of Bughuul.”

There are plenty of movies you don’t really need to see the first one in order to get what’s happening in the second or even third film. There’s The Final Destination series where a group of teens who cheat death find themselves being picked off one by one in a grisly fashion in order to reestablish some cosmic balance. Then there’s the Urban Legend series in which people are murdered in ways similar to old, urban legend stories. And one of my favorites, A Nightmare on Elm Street, follows the vicious murdering spree of a Freddy Krueger, the burned-up, knives-for-hands serial killer who strikes literally in your dreams. Unlike these films, Sinister 2 (directed by Ciarán Foy, 2015) picks up right where the previous film left off, and it does require knowledge from the first film to understand what is happening in the second. Either way, however, Sinister 2 attempts to present the ideas from the first film from a different perspective, but what it accomplishes is more grotesque, less scary, and entirely predictable. Now, if I haven’t managed to make it clear, I will be discussing what happened in the first film (including the ending), so make sure you have seen the first before you give this a read.

Deputy So & So is back, but this time he is Not So Deputy So & So…rather Ex-Deputy So & So (played by James Ransone), having been fired from the force after the death of his idol and author friend Ellison Oswalt. Our beloved Deputy So & So has made it his mission to follow the rampage of the evil, child-eating Bughuul (played by Nicholas King). There are typically 3 things in common: 1. a missing child 2. a murdered family, and 3. a film capturing the gruesome affair as well as the image of Bughuul himself. The victims are targeted when they move into the house of the previous victims, but they are only murdered when they move to a new location. Deputy So & So tries to break the various chains by burning down the houses in the chains he is able to discover. Unfortunately, this time he is too late. Courtney Collins (played by Shannyn Sossamon) has already occupied a house in one of the chains with her two boys, Dylan (played by Robert Daniel Sloan) and Zach (played by Dartanian Sloan). Tormented by nightmares and the children Bughuul has already taken, Dylan is the perfect target to be the next in Bughuul’s line of abducted children. Can our hero, Deputy So & So, protect the young mother and her children from the otherworldly evils?

In the first Sinister, Deputy So & So managed to be the most likeable character of the film. His gung-ho desire to assist Ellison Oswalt despite the dangerous situation made him both admirable and charming. His star struck and helpful nature made him the perfect inside man for Oswalt, but in the end, So & So just couldn’t save him in time. Despite Sinister 2 being centered on our Deputy So & So, this film lacked the same heart as the first. In the first film, the Deputy explains to Oswalt, “ I believe in all that stuff, I… I wouldn’t sleep one night in this place, are you nuts?” Well, guess what? Deputy So & So stays overnight in the house in the chain, and we are just supposed to believe that the fluttering of some eyelashes by Courtney and her melancholy son’s begging are enough to set aside everything he knows to be true? Well, I guess that’s the horror movie part: smart people doing stupid things.

I truly loved the first Sinister, enough to give it a 9/10. It was an interesting idea that was well-executed. The mystery of the monster in the films was still yet to be uncovered. The big reveal that the abducted children were actually the murderers of their own family, coerced by the trickery of Bughuul. Now, in Sinister 2, that secret is out. We can’t depend on the mere unknown to scare us. We know what to expect, and Sinister 2 ups the ante by taking the shocking snuff films from the first movie and making them unnecessarily gruesome. And by unnecessarily gruesome, I mean even more over-the-top than the first ones that were still very much difficult to watch. Much like the first Jeepers Creepers, when given a sequel, we already know what the monster looks like. Therefore, the second film simply can’t be as scary since that initial shock factor has already been spent. Sure, there are some of the typical, jump-out-at-you scares, but unfortunately, the actual Bughuul isn’t as scary as the idea of Bughuul. For lovers of the first film, you will still enjoy seeing Deputy So & So back in action, doing his best to be the hero he couldn’t be in the first film. Unfortunately, the film overall will leave you fairly underwhelmed. I’m giving Sinister 2 a mediocre 5/10. It isn’t often that horror movie sequels manage to outdo their predecessors, and this one certainly isn’t one of those cases.