Brought to us buy the same producer as 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Insidious', 'Sinister' is a horror that knows what its doing (somewhat). There is plenty to like in this film, great acting by Ethan Hawke, good story at its core and loads of tension. But some things do bring it down a bit, cheap use of jump scares and the story does lose itself a bit.
The film opens on super 8 footage where a family of four are standing under a tree with bags over
their heads and nooses around their necks. The family is lifted by their
necks and strangled until they are dead. Months later true crime writer Ellison Osborne (Ethan Hawke) moves his family into the house of the murdered family to work on his new book hoping it will kickstart his career again. The interesting thing about the murders is that one child is missing and Ellison believes he can find her. Upon finding a super 8 camera and film in his attic Ellison decides they my give hints to what might have happened, but what he finds is far more disturbing.
This film is carried by Hawke, he really nailed his character. You really feel for him at times, having gotten his 15 minutes of fame with a pervious book he is hungry for a second chance to prove he wasn't a one hit wonder. This causes him to make all types of mistakes along the way. Within the first 20 minutes of the movie he has a way out, one that would save his family a whole lot of grief in the days to come, but he can't, he can't let this slip away from him and what follows is on him, which he is fully aware of. I found this pretty interesting, it gave the character good development as the story went on. Another thing I liked is the fact no one else really had any screen time which really makes it Ellisons story. The use of tension is very well done here, you will find yourself at times curling into a ball in your seat. Its a bit stressful... Where the film lets you down is the cheat jump scares which are hit and miss and don't feel right for this film, it really could have been something more. Also the story loses its way a bit towards the end, its hard to go into too much detail without giving everything away.
'Sinister' is a good horror all in all. I don't see it becoming a classic or anything but I do think it would be best watched in a nice dark cinema.
This film is carried by Hawke, he really nailed his character. You really feel for him at times, having gotten his 15 minutes of fame with a pervious book he is hungry for a second chance to prove he wasn't a one hit wonder. This causes him to make all types of mistakes along the way. Within the first 20 minutes of the movie he has a way out, one that would save his family a whole lot of grief in the days to come, but he can't, he can't let this slip away from him and what follows is on him, which he is fully aware of. I found this pretty interesting, it gave the character good development as the story went on. Another thing I liked is the fact no one else really had any screen time which really makes it Ellisons story. The use of tension is very well done here, you will find yourself at times curling into a ball in your seat. Its a bit stressful... Where the film lets you down is the cheat jump scares which are hit and miss and don't feel right for this film, it really could have been something more. Also the story loses its way a bit towards the end, its hard to go into too much detail without giving everything away.
'Sinister' is a good horror all in all. I don't see it becoming a classic or anything but I do think it would be best watched in a nice dark cinema.
