Day 15 Sinister 1 and 2

Day 15 Sinister 1 and 2

See! Do you see?! Not all of these are stuck in the 80’s!!! KAREN!!!

I don’t know a Karen It just felt like one of those moments you need to put some Karen somewhere on notice.

So yeah. These two movies. Freakin hell man.

Firstly, the guy responsible for them C. Robert Cargil, I can pull the ‘I used to talk to them a lot’ card. They used to be a reviewer and contributor for Ain’t It Cool News and posted under the name Massawyrm. The guy knows his stuff, and his reviews were always a joy to see, especially for movies he hated.

Like Happy Feet

Especially Happy Feet.

His best friend and biggest fan Scott Derrickson also helped make these, and did Dr Strange.

So these movies reached that rare level with me of creeping me out. It also had a good twist I didn’t see the first time coming, and watching a few times after, was still pretty well hidden in there.

So as always when we do this, for those unfamiliar!

Sinister is about a true crime novelist, dealing with the infamy/fame of his one big best seller, and the great deal of love the police do not have for him. He’s trying to write a new novel to move out from under the shadow of his one big best seller.

So the best way to do that, naturally is to move yourself into a quite out of the way nice.

Which he does, sort of. Except he moves his entire family with him.

He also skips the quiet remote house, and moves his family into a house who’s previous family were murdered and hung from the tree out in the back yard.

How you’d convince your wife and two kids this was a good idea, would no doubt be an interesting conversation. Which we will get too I am sure, eventually.

So his plan is set in motion. He moved into this house in the hopes of uncovering the store, digging in deeper and using it as the backdrop for his new book. However something has other plans. While unpacking and storing things, he decides to check out the attic, which of course naturally, he finds something cool that none of us ever get too. Though I could see this being a case for being happy it wouldn’t happen to us.

Whilst in the attic space he finds an odd little box containing a super 8 film projector and a few reels of super 8 film, all labeled your typical family titles “BBQ, 79”, “Pool Party 86”, “Sleepy Time 98”.

Typical names for nice family films, except these are all families being flmed as they’re murdered.

For those who haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin those. Part of the fun in these movies is not knowing what is on the films until they’re watched.

But yes, these family fun time reels are not so fun for the families involved.

Now it is worth noting. He does have a moment of sanity. After discovering one of those film reels contains a family murder. He does attempt to contact the police and notify them of what he’s discovered.

Until he stops himself, realizing there is a HUGE story here, if he can uncover it. Which reminded me of Devil’s Advocate, “Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.”

Now, watching these movies does not go without strain and hardship. Oh no. There is a cost with that. The cost is his sanity. The more he watches these films, the more he begins having spooky encounters. His son begins acting out, his daughter has a dead imaginary friend telling her things, and spoopy above all else. He finds a figure without a face reflected in these films. This figure then begins stalking him. In dreams, visions, and from stil photos.

Now again, he’s not entirely without sanity and logic. He actually reaches out to a deputy who happens to be a big fan of his, and offers him much needed help with his project. But also and more importantly offers a bit of a sanity check.

Speaking of sanity. How is the family holding up? Well I mentioned what an interesting talk it must’ve been about moving into a murder house. Well. He never actually had that talk with his family sooooo. It indeed was a surprising conversation.

Needless to say his wife reacts sanely and calls him a list of well deserved names. Especially for the fact their kids had to learn about this first and then she did.

So family drama, obsession, and spooky beings popping in and out of reality. Good stuff so far.

But it’s time for more spoopiness. Eventually Private Pile from Full Metal Jacket makes an appearance straight from his living room via webcam. He’s playing a professor helping the writer to decipher odd symbols he found in the videos. Which leads him to the identity of his featureless bad dream man. Bagul. The taker of children.

Which of course startles and worries him, as well it should. He has kids!

Another discovery he makes while viewing extra bits of these films, is a weird green glowing liquid. Giving way to some Columbo detective work, deducing that all the families drank this green stuff and were knocked out. Allowing the killer, or killers to manipulate the bodies and stage their murder scenes.

Terrified and pooping himself, the author decides, okay. Enough is enough. I’m burning this shit, I’m flipping off demons and we are moving! Again! Which then see’s him discovering the film returns! More than that. There’s extra directors cut unrated editions! Talk about spiritual double dipping!

It’s at this time things massively unravel and he discovers a few things, thanks in large part to his helpeful police friend.

Firstly he discovers WHO is filming these movies. Then he discovers, he not only FITS into the pattern of when the murders happened to families, but actually rushed his OWN murder. Which leads to his final discovery. That he has been drinking green stuff and soon passes out. Waking to the face of his soon to be murderer, Their camera, and an axe.

I am sad to report. That the killer does not look to the camera and say “I just wanted to, AXE them a few questions”, but what happens, does not disappoint. Especially the aftermath of what happens. And the creepy image we’re left with.

So who was the killer? Well I doubt anyone hasn’t seen this but if you have, oh well spoilery spoils. The children! Does no one think of the children! So yes, his own kid. BUT!! But but but. NOT his son who the film leads you to believe has been influenced and visited by ghost. But his baby girl! His cute artist in training little girl!

So yeah she goes loppy choppy on her whole family with an axe, painting the walls, literally in their blood. Like all the other families murdered in the films, their kids did it and are then whisked away to the world of Bagul. Where they remain, one of his children.

It was genuinely a creepy movie with some good scares. Not all jump scares, but even the jump scares that are there, work very effectively. Which is nice for a change.

The sequel, in fact. Doubles down on those, and the scares. Matching this one punch for punch and standing on it’s own two feet with a good story.

Sinister 2 follows not a new family, entirely. But it follows the Deputy from the first film who was helping the author. Feeling bad for his death, the deputy becomes obsessed with what happened and trying to uncover the truth.

Meanwhile we have a new family as well here. With their own troubles. A single mother of two boys is hanging out in a little out of the way farm house. Hiding. She’s hiding.

Because her kids daddy is a small dick douchebag who would rather her live in fear of him, than ever try escaping him. So she could totes use a helping hand.

Enter Deputy awesome pants.  But he has some competition. Bagul is backand haunting one of the boys. Taunting them with scary visions of burning people on crosses in a cornfield, and dead children acting like Jehovas witnesses, but selling them on how cool being dead is and how making murder films is totally rad. Which it isn’t.

So There’s our setup. A mom on the run from an abusive well connected ex, teaming up with deputy awesome pants. He looks out for her and the kids, and they let him investigate their farm house and go on his Bagul hunt. The professor is ALSO back in this.

Private Pile is still here to help out and dish out the creepiness. Until he vanishes under mysterious conditions. Which leads to their assistant helping Deputy Awesome Pants.  They begin to uncover a bit more of the history behind the tapes. Going so far as discovering what they believe is the first ever recording of Bagul’s children. Which genuinely was creepy.

Much like the new films we get to watch. Seriously I loved the 8mm films from the first one, these ones up the shock and gore 10 fold. Only this time we’re getting a view of the films we didn’t get the first time around. This time we get the ghost director kids discussing their film works with the boy they’re grooming for Bagul.

Of course the films are super creepy and cool if you’re into the kills. This time around we get “Fishing Trip”, “Christmas Morning”, “Kitchen Remodel”, “Sunday Service” and “A Trip to the Dentist.”

Of those, Fishing Trip and Sunday Service are the more memorable and visceral.

Well Douchebag dad doesn’t appreciate another man looking in after his woman and two kids. He likes him even less when he tells him and his sheriff buddy off because he knows how jurisdiction works and stuff like the law. So this creates tension between the two.

Which makes things very difficult for Deputy Awesome Pants when he discovers the ladies and her kids are in danger. But we can’t have a movie like this without drama and a reason for the horror!! So of course douche dick gets ahold of the mom and her boys. Deputy awesome pants goes to warn them of what’s going to happen. But jealous men can only ever really be jealous and takes the deputy saying “You all are in danger” as saying “I like your wife and she wagged her butt at me and I liked that too” so he gets beaten.

Which leads to the next big fun twist.

As we know now the children, one of, is always the killer, who is then taken by Bagul. So as we have seen, they’ve spent a good deal of the film readying one of the boys for a murder film setup. But the son has issues with this. He doesn’t really want to be a killer, but they keep pushing. Until he finally decides enough is enough! He can’t do it! So yay no murders!!  Until the ghost get mad and decide “Well, he does have a brother who is jealous of the fact his bro bro gets to talk to dead people. He informs him at one point “You aren’t special, I can see them too!” And the ghost decide to back their play behind jelly belly bro.

So Jelly Belly Bro feeds the family the famous glowing liquid of sleepy time. Manages to crucify his mom, his dad, and his not so special brother. But Deputy Awesome Pants is like “Fuck that, imma crash this party! I hate independent cinema! Join a union you fucking hack!” And interrupts the murder film his brother was attempting to make, only managing to thankfully kill the douchebag dad. Thankfully.

There’s a good attempt at murder, Bagul’s kids do their best to cheer their champion, even Bagul gets miffed over things. Especially when Deputy Awesome Pants decides to end all of this. Finding the camera used to record the murders, he destroys it. Trapping the children Bagul captured in the spirit world. Bagul, not happy at ALL about this, decides on his own final middle finger, and boops Jelly Belly Bro, who then burst into ashes and explodes into fire as does the house.

Deputy, single mom, and survivor bro escape together and plan their future family. That is until the deputy discovers the dead children talking though an old ham radio and BOOM jump scare.

These movies are wonderful, fun, spooky, and scary af to the right group. It’s horror done right, and the sequel just solidifies that. These came out around the same time as INSIDIOUS was hitting its prime. There was even talk at one time of these two films crossing over into something called Sinsidious or some such. I pray it never happens.

But I would more than happily welcome another Sinister film into the fold. It’d be most welcome. Especially to uncover what happened to the professor, and find out if the Deputy got it on with single mom. She was pretty hot after him so, you never know.

But again. These films are great fun. The furthering of the deputies story, the uncovering of bagul’s story. It’s not even done to a degree that annoys horror fans. They do it in little doses. They aren’t trying to give you 30 minutes of back story. Just adding a little bit more creepiness to him and the reach of his influence.

So again as always. Check it out. It’s worth the creepy feels after.