As far as being creepy and disturbing the movie really works!

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2012)

'SINISTER': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Supernatural horror film from writer/director Scott Derrickson and starring Ethan Hawke. The film has Hawke playing a true-crime novelist who moves his family in to a house where the previous family was murdered, except the youngest girl who went missing, in hopes he'll find material for another hit novel. Derrickson directed and co-wrote the film with C. Robert Cargill. He performed the same duties on other horror films like 'HELLRAISER: INFERNO' and 'THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE' (which is one of my favorites). This film isn't quite as deep or thought provoking as 'THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE' but it's a pretty effective and chilling horror film nonetheless.
Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a true-crime novelist who had a hit book a decade earlier in which he also helped authorities solve a crime. The books he followed it with were not nearly as successful and now he's looking for another hit in the house where a family was murdered and the youngest girl went missing some months earlier. He doesn't tell his wife (Juliet Rylance) or son (Michael Hall D'Addario) and daughter (Clare Foley) what happened there. Upon moving boxes in to the attic he discovers a box left there with a projector and multiple reels of Super 8 footage inside. He discovers a recording of the family that lived there prior to them being hung from a tree on one reel and four other families being murdered on the other reels. As he investigates further in to each killing he finds they're all connected and much more as it starts to drive him mad.
As far as being creepy and disturbing the movie really works. The music (by veteran composer Christopher Young) is very haunting and effective and there are several startling moments which are definitely satisfying if that's what you're looking for. Hawke dominates every scene and Derrickson's directing is stylish and fitting. Derrickson's screenplay is intriguing as well but once it gets to the supernatural elements of the story it starts to lose it's effect a little and becomes a little clichéd. I found the film much more effective and disturbing when it was just about murders that were probably arranged by some deranged lunatic rather than some form of a supernatural being. Once a film like this turns to fantasy it seems less creepy and disturbing (to me). A horror film is much scarier when it's something that could really happen. Still it has plenty of great scares and memorable scenes and it works for the most part. It is a grade A production made on a budget of just $3 million so it's an impressive achievement by any measure. Fans of horror films should more than be pleased.
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