"Sinister" Review

"Sinister"

Directed by Scott Derrickson

Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Dalton Thompson, Michael Hall D'Addario

 

RATING

8/10

Ah, yes. The obligatory great horror movie of the year amidst the endless array of cheap horror being churched out has arrived in the form of "Sinister". And I'm just going to level with you guys here and now: This movie scared the shit outta me. And usually I'm not one to be scared easily, having grown up watching every horror movie under the sun. So expectations for this film when the initial reviews were coming out was that this was better than "Insidious", and rightfully was compared to it. But I hate to be the one to mix-and-match movies at all, but at least I had set a bar for myself in terms of the scare factor. And good job, "Sinister". Well played.

 

So it tells the story of Ellison Oswalt, a reknowned true-crime writer who moves into a new house with his family. Already, the movie screams generic, but it gets better. Trust me. Soon, strange things start to happen when he finds a box full of super 8 tapes in his attic, all documenting grizzly murders. Ellison decides to base his next novel off of this new found discovery, but as he dives deeper into these mysteries, he begins to discover an ominous, malevolent presence residing within these tapes that is slowly pushing him to the point of insanity.

 

Right off the bat, from the very first shot of the film, you know you're in for something special. "Sinister" is so well-made and executed, it immediately seperates itself from the regular horror film. There is a vibe throughout the entire movie that is just creepy and off-key, and you really get that brooding, demented feeling. Scott Derrickson, who directed the scare-fest "Exorcism of Emily Rose", does a brilliant job at keeping the suspense and intensity heightened on a tightrope to such an extent, that when it snaps, it catches you off-guard and hits you hard. It's an amazing feat that few modern horror directors are able to capture in essence. The antagonist or "boogeyman" of the film is called Bagul, and I'm gonna forget for a second his oddly striking resemblence to Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson, but he is unbelievably scary and threatening. His image will be burned into your brain for years to come, trust me.

 

As for the acting, while the supporting cast does a fairly good job, the heart and soul of this film is ultimately Ethan Hawke as the writer who is tormented with some harsh decisions from his past. Hawke is a great, severely underrated actor who rarely attaches himself to bad films, so you knew this was not going to be your typical horror flick. Another thing is, I really hate jump scares, especially when it's a cat or a douchebag boyfriend who grabs someone on the shoulder and the girl is all "oh my gosh, Brad! You scared me!" ... Yeah, I fucking hate that. "Sinister" has plenty of jump scares... but in a very good way. The jump scares are backed up by genuinely frightening imagery and ultimately adds to the overall effect. Whatever causes the jump scare (and most of the time it's that nightmarishly scary Bagul) has weight and grit to it, and I loved that. The score is also fantastic too and serves its purpose of manipulating your senses at the right moments. Also, to not spoil anything, I liked how the film puts a twist on the cliche horror trope of staying in the house when creepy stuff starts to happen or moving into new houses. It's pretty clever and impressive writing.

 

The only flaw I had with the film was that there are a lot of scenes of Ellison walking around the house slowly, looking in empty rooms, walking some more, reacting to strange noises... Even though there's a pretty awesome scene that, in a way, pokes fun at this aspect of horror cliches. However, it kind of falls victim to its own parody. I thought it would just be a once-off thing when I first saw it, but the film does it a few times more and it kind of gets tired after a while.

 

Nonetheless, I really had a thrilling time watching "Sinister". Thanks to a strong lead performance from Ethan Hawke, an abundance of creepy and disturbing imagery, a vividly frightening villain, and great, suspenseful direction, it's one of the better horror movies of the last decade and an extremely well-made one at that.