The phrase "a sinister shadow of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something that evokes a sense of foreboding or malevolence, often in relation to a person, event, or situation that has a dark or ominous quality.
Example: "The abandoned house stood as a sinister shadow of the once vibrant community that thrived there."
Alternatives: "a dark reflection of" or "an ominous remnant of".
I didn't think I resembled Bonnie Parker, as in Bonnie and Clyde, but I must have cast a sinister shadow on that misty September morning.
The people who fought to remove Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc" from Foley Square — it came down in 1989, after eight years of public protest — said that the arc was "ugly," "brutal," "intrusive," "hostile," "offensive," and "dangerous," and even that it cast a "sinister shadow," but none of them said that it was a bad role model, or was racist, or insulted minorities.
But the first chapter and its outcrops of bitterness have done their damage, casting a sinister shadow over the rest of the book.
I discovered Blackwood through an ancient copy of Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural, which repackaged 22 of his short stories into a chunky volume that still casts a sinister shadow across the stairwell of my house.
The paper announced that the murder had "cast a sinister shadow" over Tokyo's entire female expatriate community.
URGES LIMIT TO PAROLES Names One Attorney as "Sinister Shadow" of Courts, Attorney Derbies Charge.
It's worth noting, for example, that its incidental music (by Jason Robert Brown, the composer of "Parade") suggests the tense theme to "Peter Gunn" jauntily played on banjos, and that Santo Loquasto's inspired set and Brian McDevitt's lighting combine county-fair fun-house corniness with the more sinister shadows of American Gothic.
The Army's national military offensive, Operation Zarb-e-Azb, sought to dismantle the terror outlet that had cast a large and sinister shadow over much of the country since its formation in 2007.
And history shows that these words that Bill O'Reilly invoked cast a long, sinister shadow.
They also sought reassurance after the sinister shadow that saw off Ramón Calderón cast a cloud over Catalunya.
