Review of Sinister (2012) by Guillermobm — 22 Jan 2015

Despite Hawke's superb performance and a few scary moments, most of Sinister relies on cheap jump-scares. 50/100 [C].

True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt moves himself and his family into a house where a horrific crime took place earlier, but his family doesn't know. He is trying to find out more about the crime so he can write a new book about it to help his flailing career. He uses some "snuff" film footage he finds in the house to help in his research, but he soon finds more than he bargained for. There is a figure in each of the films, but who or what is it? As a result, his family start to suffer (as does he), and things take a turn for the worse. Will they survive? Sinister is a horror film written and directed by Scott Derrickson, and well... I'm not a huge fan of his previous work.

The opening scene is awesome and looks realistic, but this little scene becomes quite tedious because is being constantly repeated throughout the film again and again, making it less effective. But the movie boasts an interesting story, also Ethan Hawke's performance was awesome and you can feel identified with his character. It has enough originality in some of the scares and it definitely stands out from other films of the genre. The special effects were generally good, except in a few scenes where lots of CGI were used on some crappy ghost-kids. The CGI scenes disgusted me so much, because the film doesn't need them at all.

What I really found interesting and clever, is the content of the Super 8 tapes, it's undoubtedly scary. Some scenes made me jump and they looked very realistic. It's pretty decent and the performances were very enjoyable, in spite of some awful child actors. It's also very sad to see Hawke's character, for some strange reason I felt sorry for him, he just wanted to write his book and be famous again. For me, the stars of the film are Hawke and Juliet Rylance, these two actors were very professional in the movie, they seem serious all time and I really enjoyed every conversation they had, all their fights, discussions, etc.

It has too much suspense at times and becomes boring. It's filled with a bunch of generic loud noises, cheap jump-scares and constant darkness. I've seen Sinister more than three times already: the first time I saw it by myself, the second time I saw it with my sister, and the last time I saw it alone... again. I really wanted to like it. Anyway, it's just not my type of horror film. I do not recommend Sinister for horror fans, it's very boring, the editing is horrible and its plot is cliche. On the upside, the script is solid at times, it has quality performances and some suspense. With all that, it creates a mildly frightening atmosphere.

I think that it has enough jump-scares and good performances to satisfy a big part of the clueless audience. Moving on, the last fifteen minutes are quite messy, while at times it kept the tension, nobody can rescue the film of being a total boredom. It became very explicit in its final act. Also, the last scare of the movie was silly and predictable. Sinister fails to convince and entertain. I'm a huge fan of Hawke but the movie doesn't deserve a positive review because it has lots of flaws, especially in its final act. I would like to see less of the villain (Mr. Boogie) in the film, unfortunately they showed way too much of him and became less scary.

As I said, the acting was great, Ethan Hawke and the charismatic British actress Juliet Rylance were excellent. The script is mostly solid, the content of the Super 8 tapes is very disturbing, and there were a few scary moments in the movie. I recommend it if you expect great performances or if you get scared easily. On the downside: all the suspense built up throughout the film falls flat at the end, the performances of some "ghost" children were awful and some of the actions of the characters were somewhat stupid. So, if you want an entertaining, memorable and well-executed horror movie, Sinister is not your best choice.