Sinister 2
The film opens in an identical style to the first movie: a snuff movie depicting a family being hung up like scarecrows in a corn field with sacks over their heads and burned alive when a lighter is thrown into a trail of petrol. It is revealed to be the nightmare of nine-year-old Dylan Collins, who is staying in a rural farmhouse next to a deconsecrated Lutheran church, with his twin brother Zach, and their mother Courtney (Shannyn Sossamon). He hears rustling in the open wardrobe and a spooky face appears. A ghost bearing a likeness to his twin brother appears.
The Deputy from the first film goes to Confession. He is independently researching the murders connected to Bughuul. He's also burning down the homes where each murder took place before another family can move into them to prevent more murders, including the house where Oswalt and his family was murdered in the first film. The priest recognises him from "the Oswalt thing." Deputy explains he found something otherworldly and asks the priest for help, who tells him to stay out of it instead.
Courtney works in the church, restoring antiques. Whilst shopping (and her sons are playing with toy guns), a man with sunken eyes seems to stare at Courtney and appears to follow her around the shop. She tells the boys to run (using Rutabaga as a safe word) and the man chases her as she leaves the shop, knocking over a stand. Courtney orders a security guard to stop him. As they drive away, the man is seen on a phone, saying "That's her." to an unknown person, most likely Clint, Courtney's abusive ex-husband who is also the father of her children.
Dylan is visited nightly by a group of ghostly children, led by a boy named Milo, who force him to watch "home movies" of families being murdered in various savage ways; eaten alive by alligators while being hung upside-down above a river ("Fishing Trip"), electrocuted in a puddle of water on a kitchen floor ("Kitchen Remodel"), buried alive in the snow on Christmas Day ("Christmas Morning") and strapped to chairs with their mouths forced open and having their teeth mutilated with drills ("Dentist Appointment").
The Deputy arrives at a farmhouse to destroy it, but is interrupted when he realizes Courtney and her sons are living there. Courtney tells him to leave because she thinks he is working with Clint. He convinces her otherwise and tells Courtney he is a private investigator, and she allows him to investigate the deconsecrated church on the property where a gruesome murder took place. She doesn't realize it, but her sons know what happened at the church.
The Deputy is then seen in a hotel room reading newspaper articles on a computer, when he stumbles across one which shows Courtney and Clint on their wedding day. Suddenly, articles about the murder in the church flood the screen, before Bughuul's symbol and a loud buzzing appear and the screen cuts out. When he leans down to collect his bag, the reflection of the screen shows Bughuul standing in the bathroom doorway behind the Deputy. When the Deputy sees it and looks behind him, there is nothing there. Bughuul then appears in the reflection again, before walking forward and putting his finger to his lips. The Deputy slams the laptop screen closed.
Clint shows up at the farmhouse with police to try and take the boys but leaves after the Deputy threatens them, warning them that they need a court order to proceed. In this scene, it is also revealed that he was arrested as a suspect for the murder of the Oswalts. While he was eventually cleared of the charge, he was subsequently fired for releasing classified information (the names and addresses of the murders he gave to Ellison Oswalt in the first film.)
Courtney wants to leave with the boys but the Deputy advises Courtney not to leave the farmhouse, knowing that each of the murders connected to Bughuul occurred only after the families had fled the homes where the previous murders had occurred. Courtney invites him to stay at the farmhouse on the condition that he doesn't tell anyone where they are, and the two develop a budding romance, talking outside the house while sitting on the swings, and passionately kissing once they return inside.
Deputy meets with a professor who has come into possession of a ham radio that belonged to Professor Jonas from the previous film, who was in contact with Ellison Oswalt and has mysteriously disappeared. The professor said the ham radio first belonged to a Norwegian family who was mysteriously murdered in 1973. The professor plays a recording from the Norwegian family, and after reading out the coordinates of the house, the young girl's voice on the tape screams "Bughuul can't hear me over your yelling, Mom!" in Norwegian.
Deputy deduces that Bughuul exclusively targets the children of the murdered families, and suddenly, the ham radio bursts to life with a loud buzz, repeating what the Deputy just said over and over again: "It's the kids. He gets the kids." before suddenly cutting out. Deputy then orders the professor to destroy the ham radio.
Zach becomes jealous of the ghostly children who visit Dylan, and insists on having their attention. They show Dylan the video of the murders which took place in the same Lutheran church on their property: a family is nailed to the floor with bowls placed on their chests, encasing a live rat. When hot coals from a stove are placed on the bowls, the rats burrow through their abdomens to escape the heat, causing them to bleed to death ("Sunday Service"). After Dylan refuses to watch the last movie, the children turn their attention to Zach and abandon Dylan.
Clint arrives with the court ordered custody warrants he didn't have before and Courtney is forced to leave with Zach and Dylan. After finding the farmhouse empty, the Deputy drives to Clint's home to warn them about the danger, but Clint assaults him and threatens him with a gun, telling him if he ever comes back he will shoot. The next day, Zach, as directed by the ghost children, films Dylan learning how to play golf with Clint and Courtney. After realising he and his family have been poisoned, Dylan contacts the Deputy for help. The Deputy immediately leaves his house, and upon arriving at the family home, he sees fire and smoke in the distance. He drives into the cornfield.
Courtney, Dylan, and Clint are drugged and hung on scarecrow posts with sacks over their heads in the cornfield. A possessed Zach lights Clint on fire first and films him as he burns to death. Just as Zach is about to light Courtney on fire, the Deputy arrives and hits Zach with his car. He frees Courtney and Dylan and they flee into the cornfield. However, Zach has survived being hit (thanks to demonic possession) and pursues them through the cornfield with the camera and cuts half the Deputy's fingers off with a swing of a sickle.
Inside the home, the ghost kids try to help Zach find Courtney and Dylan, tearing the house apart and knocking out the Deputy in the process. Just as Zach is about to kill Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy finally manages to break the camera by hitting it with a golf club, thwarting Zach's home movie and breaking the cycle. After a desperate Zach tries to search for another camera, he is shamed and disgraced by the ghost kids for failing to kill his family and is carried into Bughuul's realm, his face melting into a skull. The house then catches fire as the Deputy, Courtney, and Dylan escape. Courtney is left distraught.
Later, when the Deputy is in his motel room packing his things, he turns and sees the ham radio. Children's voices are heard saying "It's the kids, he gets the kids!". As a young girl's voice whispers "Deputy", Bughuul appears and the scene cuts to black.
paranormal, murder, home movie