It is important to note that Sinister 2 begins right where
the first movie left off. If you haven’t
seen the first one you will be pretty lost for a good portion of this
film. I have seen the original multiple
times and I was a little lost myself.
That is an entirely different issue, however.
This
movie centers around a single mother (Shannyn Sossamon) and her twin boys
(played by real life twins Dartanian and Robert Daniel Sloan) who move into an
old farmhouse where a gruesome murder took place years ago. Ex-Deputy So & So (James Ransone)
stumbles upon the family as he is investigating the strange occurrences
surrounding the death of the writer Ellison Oswalt and his family.
The
thing that made the first movie work so well was that the family drama that set
the backdrop for all the scary stuff really worked. You cared about the family and what happened
to them. This movie tries to do the same
thing except this time it doesn’t work nearly as well. I personally didn’t care about the characters
at all which took the tension out of the film.
The whole thing feels quite contrived.
It feels like just what it is; a device by which to inject the scares
into the film. Also, with the mystery of
Bughuul no longer intact, the film is far less interesting. They tried to take a different approach to
the story which I respect, but it just didn’t work for me.
The
acting in the film leaves a lot to be desired.
Shannyn Sossamon is ok, but I’ve always thought she was overrated. James Ransone was good in a supporting role
in Sinister but he is not leading man material.
All of the supporting actors were bad except for Lea Coco, who played
the villainous husband, pulling strings to get back custody of his sons. Although Coco did a pretty good job, his
character was flat and unrealistic.
The
star of the first movie was, without a doubt, the 8mm footage. These scenes provided some of the most
disturbing imagery I have ever seen in a movie.
That is one thing that this sequel got right. It is true that these scenes are more
elaborate and contrived than in the first movie but I think they had to be that
way in order to live up to what was expected here. They certainly exceeded my expectations in
this area. While I would agree that
these segments don’t have the same unexpected emotional punch that they did in
the first movie (which is not entirely the fault of the movie), I would say
that these are more disturbing overall.
Ciaran
Foy (Citadel) did not impress me as the director of this film. There was too much shaky cam stuff. One scene in the climax of the movie is
really hard to watch because of the camera work. There was also a lot of stupid things
happening that would never happen in real life.
It felt like this movie took a lot of shortcuts. The ending of the movie is overly convoluted
with way too much going on, most of which makes no sense.
This
movie is nowhere near as good as the first Sinister. It’s not laughably bad, but it is not good
either. If this is your genre, as it is
mine, it might be worth seeing when it comes out in Redbox. I wouldn’t advise paying theater prices to
see it. I hoped for more from this, but
ultimately got about what I expected.
The Movie Man gives it 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Please click the link and give my Facebook page a like. https://www.facebook.com/reviewsmovieman?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
No comments:
Post a Comment