Someone should really tell the creators of Slender Man that Focus Features went ahead and ripped off their character, except their version sports rockin’ long black hair. Here we are with the direct follow-up to “Sinister” and the mystery of who or what Bughuul still isn’t interesting, nor is the actual character of Bughuul. His motives are still a mystery, his quest for luring children still unknown, and there’s not a lot of explanation to what purpose the children serve for him. Are they his willing minions? Are they individual manifestations of his persona through the souls of the children he’s consumed? Are they possessed by him? Or are they his eternal slaves? The writers don’t seem to know just yet.
Set directly after the events with Ethan Hawke’s character, we meet the deputy from the first film who is now the primary protagonist. He’s terrified the event involving the previous family will happen again, and lo and behold it’s begun. We meet Courtney, as played by Shannyn Sossamon, who is on the run with her twin nine year old sons from her abusive husband. He’s a sadistic man with a lot of connections and is tracking Courtney to seize his sons again, despite her best efforts. Sons Dylan and Zach are polar opposite personalities, with Zach possessing something of a sadistic streak. Just their luck, as their mom battles with her ex husband, Dylan is visited by the child ghosts from Bughuul’s world and is forced in to watching the disturbing home movies of the murders of their families before they became pawns of Bughuul.
As Dylan resists their evil, though, Zach becomes a willing ally, and the deputy races to stop Bughuul from re-surfacing. “Sinister 2” doesn’t have much of a series of characters or story lines that are too fleshed out. Despite the original film lacking logic and being predictable, it at least explored characters, a larger family dynamic, and some sense of psychoses within the children. This time around, a lot of the characters are clumsily placed and speedily established to serve the story and don’t unfold naturally. Zach seems sadistic from the moment we see him, so it’s not much of a surprise when he begins getting lured by Bughuul. Meanwhile Courtney’s whole narrative involving the battle with her ex-husband literally goes nowhere, and is written in to the movie to apparently end in a climax that derives little to no empathy or surprise.
The only really good aspects left in the “Sinister” movies are the home movies which are still utterly disturbing and very creepy. They’re about the only aspect of the Bughuul mythology that’s interesting and the writers still have no grasp on what they want to do with it, beyond staging gruesome executions of seemingly mundane families. For the most part, the performances are sub-par with Sossamon failing to deliver on a character that’s barely written competently all the while James Ransone takes hold of a recurring character that barely has a personality let alone a proper name. Do we have to really call him “Ex-Deputy So & So”? Somewhere deep down, there’s a good idea for a “Sinister” movie somewhere, and I hope we get it. Until then, we’re left with “Sinister 2,” a lackluster follow up to what was a fairly unimpressive horror entry.