Review - Sinister

Scaring Up Goose Bumps

True crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is living on his past glories while looking for his new hit. His books have always caused a bit of a chaos in towns so you can excuse the local law if they are not happy about his newest stop. In fact the new house he has moved into is more than just the house down the street from where a horrific tragedy occurred, it is THE house that was home to the massacre.

The story is one of a family that was found hanging from a tree in the back yard. There were of course, some mysterious things around the case. One of the children was never found and the case was never truly explained.

Immediately on moving into the house the strange things start to happen. It seems all centered on a box of innocuous enough films that were left behind in the attic. They look to have been left there AFTER they purchased the house and they have sweet titles like Hanging Out, Pool Party and Lawn Work…but these titles hide what is the true content of the films. When Ellison starts examining the films he quickly finds they are videos that capture a gruesome series of murders.

But that’s not all. Strange things start to happen around the house including their son with “night terrors” and films that start on their own to name a few. These weird happenings drive Ellison deeper into his examination of the cases and deeper into the bottle by his side. As things start to come together, the weird happenings get worse. Will he ever get to the bottom of this horrific crime scene?

Horror/Thrillers rarely screen for us in the critical community, and I don’t know why. Sinister is a film that got goose bumps on my arms on a number of occassions, and that is a success.

What I liked about this film that was different from many current horror attempts is the ability to put the crimes in your head and make them slosh around a bit instead of showing you pits of gore on screen. There is something to be said for a film that makes a gruesome scene SCARIER without seeing onscreen gore.

The kills in the story are not pleasant; there is no question about that. But director Scott Derrickson shows us them through filters whether a film on a screen or shooting the killing with the view in a mirror that you don’t have to splatter all the blood in the audience’s face every time.

It’s that imagery in your own mind of what that kill looks like that creeps you out. That mixed with good sound creates a film that is a decent scare.

Sure it devolves into some things that are a bit cliché and mainstream. And sure some of the characters act blissfully clueless in the movie, as the horror script goes. But, overall if you are looking for some definite goose bump action…Sinister will scare them up on your skin.

B

Sinister

Summit Entertainment

Director: Scott Derrickson

Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes