My real score is closer to a 6.5/10 but of course I just rounded up. The reason I'm not attacking this movie negatively is because I love horror movies good and bad. Horror is a fun genre even if the movies aren't good. This isn't a good or bad horror film. It's borderline 'okay'. The original Sinister was a refreshing and creepy film that was disturbing for all the right reasons. It was clever with its atmosphere and its jump scares(the lawnmower scene still gives me chills). The soundtrack was haunting and somewhat beautiful. But lets not forget all those aforementioned comments are for the original film, not this one. Sure this movie had the same writers as the first, but maybe the spark wasn't fully reigniting for this sequel. This movie took all of the best elements of the original and dumbed them down slightly. The new director previously directed the very good indie horror film Citadel, which is better than this. I didn't hate this movie. But I far from loved it. I did have a somewhat good time in its world. The scares made me jump. But the atmosphere was just a bad copy of the first film. The snuff film sequences were trying too hard and showed too much. It would be disturbing to younger viewers probably but it didn't have that lasting effect of the subdued ideas of the first films snuff elements. The acting was okay. But I was rolling my eyes whenever the kids talked. Especially when the 'ghoul' kids tried to sound scary. Newsflash, kids are only scary in movies when they Don't talk in their dumb fake scary voices. The 'ghoul' kids in the original didn't talk and just their presence was chilling. And honestly the story wasn't that compelling. Sure the main actress was cute and blah blah but I honestly just didn't care about them aside from the returning deputy from the first movie. Baghuls appearances ranged from cleverly scary and eerie to stereotypical pop ups. Now these comments make it seem like I'm complaining and disliking the film. Not true. I'm just pointing out obvious flaws. Now the trailers for the movie really ruined many of its scare factors. It showed too much and when the movie actually played the scenes spoiled in the trailer weren't nearly as effective. There were a bunch of scares not in the trailer but it seemed like it was too much. A scare every 3 minutes seems scary but by the 30 minute mark I just got used to it and sat there as if I was watching a creepy drama, not a scarefest. Of course toward the finale I jumped more again since thats when they stack up the scares tenfold. Like I said, it has all of the elements of the first film, but just dumbed down. If you're a horror fan then you could appreciate this movie somewhat. If you're looking for a movie to kick off the Halloween season with a night of scares then this is also decent. If you hate the horror genre, don't even bother seeing it. I'd say try to see it within it's first week of release in theaters if you can because it's a fun movie to sit in a crowd with. But after that just wait till it's on DVD/Blu-Ray or Netflix. I can see this setting up another sequel but if things don't improve after this one then the franchise could die fast or go into 'direct to video' release.
