Direct-to-video bullshit keeps the expectations for horror movies so low that when one is declared “pretty good”, you can expect sequels until basically the end of time—thus perpetuating the cycle that the film once deemed so “original” broke free from in the first place. Sinister, which Scott Tobias gave a rousing B+ in The A.V. Club back in October of 2012, is currently in the early stages of that cycle.
Summit Entertainment and parent company Lionsgate are preparing to shoot Sinister 2, written by Sinister scribes Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. Derrickson also directed the original, but will be stepping down for the sequel; instead, he announced via Twitter yesterday that Sinister 2 will be directed by Irish filmmaker Ciaran Foy. Foy made his feature debut with the supernatural thriller Citadel—another solid B+—which played at SXSW in 2012. Like Sinister, Citadel combines menacing atmosphere with a slowly creeping sense of the supernatural, so hopefully Foy can keep Sinister 2 firmly in “rent it” territory.