This Sounds Like a Job for Captain Hindsight

Rating: 5/10 (15 February 2013)

I feel like this film deserves a good, solid damning with faint praise...it was watchable.
Well, the bar has been set very low for the horror genre over the past 20 years, so it isn't surprising this film is getting some audacious praise. But if you are looking for a horror film on par with HALLOWEEN, THE SHINING, or even THE RING you really needn't watch this film. In my opinion, if you look up the word "mediocre" in a dictionary, it should have Derrickson's SINISTER listed as a synonym.
Ethan Hawke was believable in his role as Ellison Oswalt, but really he was a supporting actor in this film--the projector was the lead. There was also one of the better marital blow-up scenes since WAR OF THE ROSES I've seen on film, kudos for that. But, Juliet Rylance's Tracy didn't seem very solid of a character. She basically tells hubby Ellison that she doesn't want to know what he's up to writing about grisly, unsolved murders, but then goes ballistic about him not telling her they moved into a "haunted" house. In the middle of this film, Tracy is satisfied to perform "mommy duties," and isn't really shown with any hobbies, work, etc. A very 2D portrait of really any female character ever in a horror film.
The found footage was good stuff, and the murders depicted therein were pretty creative for a horror movie--I can't recall seeing a good ole fashioned drowning in a horror picture lately. The lawnmower was also right at home in this grisly horror movie. The pace was fairly good for suspense, if somewhat monotonous in nature. Example:
-goes to sleep
-creeeeeek
-"huh, what's that?" (I should go investigate) /walks around house sloooooowly with a knife/bat/flashlight.
-finds a box of films or a scorpion or a snake or some kids with mudpaint on their faces that he can't see, because they are later revealed to exist in Bughuul-Land...kinda like Disney Land except not as touristy or happy.
-JUMP SCARE!!! /end suspense
While there were some legitimate scares that didn't feel too cheap, the first one really coming slightly over an hour into the film, anyone who DID NOT assume the missing child was the murderer from the first "home movie" was not paying attention!! Hmm...family of 5, 4 hanging from a tree, 1 missing and no trace.../scratches head. Officer Barbrady from South Park would've been very proud of this police work.
So, the climax and end of the film did not pay off for me that well. I was waiting for Oswalt's family to show up in a "family film" for about a half hour before it actually happened. Excruciatingly predictable. Not to mention, we have these 10 y/o super human kids who are lifting/dragging/transporting/roping/drugging/murdering their entire families, which seems out of the realm of their physical capabilities. Now, I'd be fine suspending my disbelief if this occult deity somehow gave these kids special powers, but that didn't seem to be the case. That doesn't even account for the plotting and planning. Why again did these otherwise normal kids become homicidal maniacs? From looking at a picture and getting their souls eaten? Oh, that's right...
As you have it, there's a (famous??) non-fiction murder-mystery writer who likes scotch, watching interviews of himself being a tool on Tavis Smiley, and locking himself in his office to watch found footage. But, for a guy who deals with scary ish all of the time, presumably, you'd have to think this Ellison Oswalt guy is just a tad jumpy? I mean this guy wrote Kentucky Blood!! How can anyone be scared after that? OK, so we never found out what it was about...touche.
Raise your hand if this movie would have been better had that deputy cop been the deranged killer, rather than Bughuul--a forgotten, ancient, pagan, Babylonian deity. /raises hand. Oh, yeah, and they could have figured a more creative way than an axe at the end right? No one's ever done axe murderer in a horror film before...
TL;DR: If you like horror flicks that are pretty OK, and kind of interesting, but somewhat scary, then you just might make it a point to put this film on the backburner to watch sometime, maybe. Not as gory as SAW, and sort of in the suspense-psychological tradition of THE SHINING (right down to the wall paintings), with an inanimate object (projector) as the lead role no less; this movie is certain to make you twitch once or twice and let out a good hearty "meh" at the end. 5/10.