Coming from a man who once relied on a nightlight to ward off evil closet-dwelling monsters, the original Sinister sufficiently creeped me out. Evil dead children, a demon with a reputation for popping out of nowhere, and intolerable home movies – Scott Derrickson’s haunted house rehash scored some serious points in my book. But after watching Sinister 2, I now understand that it wasn’t Bagul’s terrifying hypnosis that sent chills up my spine. Not in the least. It was Derrickson’s direction and tone that ensured each of Bagul’s scares dug its fangs deeper than the last, while Sinister 2 is a wholly different beast of a sequel with a laxer grasp of horror under the guidance of Citadel director Ciarán Foy.

Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill return to unleash Bagul on another unsuspecting family, bringing along a familiar face in James Ransone’s “Ex-Deputy So & So” character (seriously,...