Sinister (2012)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Scott Derrickson
Writers Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone
Genre Thriller
Tagline Once you see him, nothing can save you
Country

Review

"Don't worry, daddy. I'll make you famous again." - Ashley Oswalt

Ellison Oswalt is a true crime writer who has moved his wife Tracy and their two kids, Ashley and Trevor, into a new house he purchased cheap. He wants to work on his next book about a family who were killed and their young daughter abducted and Tracy is concerned they have moved a couple of houses down from the murder site. What Ellison hasn't told Tracy is that the murdered four family members were hung in the backyard of the house they have moved into. Ellison hasn't had a hit in over ten years since his book "Kentucky Blood" hit the top of the best seller charts and he was a regular on the talk show circuit.

Up in the attic of the new house Ellison discovers a box of old 8mm films and a projector and decides to view the movies to get an insight into the murdered family. What he discovers is that each film has two parts, in the first part a family is doing the normal enjoying themselves thing, in the second part they are being murdered by person or persons unseen. As Ellison digs into the movies he discovers a shrouded white faced figure in the background and deduces a serial killer has recorded the deaths of his victims. What Ellison is unprepared for are strange noises in the night, things turning themselves on, and all manner of paranormal incidents. Can Ellison work out the puzzle the movies present or will he and his family become the next victims?

Wow finally a modern horror movie that is doing exactly what a horror show should aim to do, grab you by the short and curlies and send a chill down your spine. I was absolutely blown away by Sinister as it hit that old time beat, spent time introducing the characters, and threw a devilish plot in my direction that had me bouncing up and down like a lap dancer when the fleet is in town. Besides a few queries I would almost call Sinister the perfect horror vehicle, for sure it kicks the arse of any main stream release since Paranormal Activity. Hopefully they don't decide to franchise this movie that could get real bad real quickly.

First let's get the issues out of the way up front so that we can then bask in the chill wind Sinister sends our way. Bumps in the night, for sure I would be checking them out but as opposed to Ellison Oswalt I'd tend to turn on the odd light. Ellison spends a lot of the movie checking out the freaky deaky in the dark, there's enough ambient light for the audience to see the action, but come on who does that? The other issue I had was with Oswalt's family, they could have slept through a drive by shooting. Come on no one outside a teenage male can achieve that level of R.E.M! Guess a final issue, being very picky here, what happened to Trevor's night chills, we get a couple of occurrences then the plot device is dropped for no apparent reason. Actually thinking about it Trevor disappears for great chunks of the movie, what was that about?

To the good gravy, and there's plenty to talk about here. Ethan Hawke (Ellison Oswalt) carries the movie in a sort of quiet desperation. Hawke brings across Ellison's determination to change things and deliver another hit. The Actor looks harried and concerned throughout the movie as things start to go wrong and not a lot of writing is getting done. He drinks an inordinate amount of whiskey, has the odd temper tantrum, and finally hits the cigs as things deteriorate rapidly. Even more impressive, when faced with a malignant paranormal Ellison gets out of Dodge at warp factor nine, don't bother packing, we're long time gone. Hawke nails the character, the whole writer on the edge of reason thing, and the inner darkness that unleashes primal evil.

One of the great horror movies, it's in my top 25 as of right now folks!

I'm not about to give away any spoilers here, you'll just have to groove to the movie, but the plot is both logical and well thought out. We get the answers in the final block of the movie and it hangs together like the Scooby gang after a Macca's feast. I didn't need any more explanations, the motivations were there, without Director Scott Derrickson having to force feed me anything. Sure it would have been cool if Ellison had a chance to vanquish the force he has unleashed but to be honest he was rooted in the real world, hit a situation he couldn't comprehend, and acted perfectly naturally for mine. I didn't note at any stage any of the characters making stupid moves or doing things because the script demanded it. All in all I was a believer and am giving the script and plot lines two thumbs up.

Surprisingly Sinister lacks anything approaching gore but there are some well past disturbing images that might upset some viewers. We're talking the 8mm movies here that depicted some pretty horrible deaths that will linger with you. The first family is hung, that really affected me for no apparent reason, we then get another family drowned, another burnt alive in their car, and yet another having their throats slashed. In each case the camera pulls away from showing the actual gruel, we get the throat cutting via a reflection in Ellison's glasses for example, but the inference is there and it's pretty tough to sit through. I'm not a gore guy, think it has destroyed a lot of the dark genre's reputation, but here Derrickson makes it almost an art form as he shows some pretty inventive deaths, loved the puns in the 8mm titles, from strange angles and surprisingly using a box top pretty effectively with stick figures.

Strangely the house that isn't "two houses down from a crime scene" seems to be infested with all sorts of nasty, besides the paranormal shenanigans. We get a rather large scorpion, a vividly coloured snake, and to top it off a ferocious dog in the backyard! This movie has more animal life than Wes summoned up in Deadly Blessing! Not surprisingly, given the superior writing invoked by the script, Derrickson ties it altogether in a pretty awesome fashion. You are going to have to pay attention however to get the meaning there.

I should also mention I was worried about the fates of the abducted children, there's a kid missing from each family that was massacred, and thankfully Derrickson doesn't leave this plot point hanging. You do get your answers but not fully explained. I've got my own theories on what went down, but once again no spoilers!

As one would expect from a serious horror movie T&A isn't happening, and I got to say wasn't needed as Ethan Hawke pretty much carries the movie on his own shoulders through great chunks of it. There's enough happening without some raspberry topping being added unnecessarily to the mix.

I should also mention the score by Christopher Young that simply amped up the chills I was seeing on my screen. Young nails the whole tension laced atmospherically heavy movie we are devouring. An outstanding achievement, one of the best horror scores ever laid down for mine.

Sinister came at me with a big reputation, the North Americans were loving what they saw and Director Scott Derrickson had previously nailed it with the didactic The Exorcism of Emily Rose. However the Director also delivered the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still so my jury was out. Previously the Yanks raved about Drag Me To Hell and that one turned out to be overly praised and the nearest a live action movie can get to a cartoon without animated pixels. When I finally sat down with Sinister it blew my socks off, grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, and gave me the sort of violent shake I haven't had in quite some time from a horror flick. From the excellent use of "food footage", through the developing mystery, to the demonic Bughuul/Mr Boogie I was simply in awe of Derrickson's pacing, ability to turn up the chills, and atmosphere that dripped with menace. If you want to see a real horror movie that is out to scare you then this is that movie, the most recommended movie of 2012.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  A classic of the genre, excellent movie.