One of the more decent horrors out there.

Rating: 7/10 (29 May 2013)

"Sinister" movie review
As a fan of the horror genre, as soon as I saw the trailer for the movie 'Sinister', I decided I would have to see it. I'd never heard of any of the stars, but the premise of the film seemed interesting, and the trailer had a very creepy vibe to it.
I went to see this movie at the cinema (on Halloween and on Screen 13, coincidence?). It was the first, and at the moment, only horror I've seen on the big screen, so I was excited to see if this enhanced the experience.
In short, this movie terrified me. Some scenes left me hiding behind my jacket with my fingers in my ears crying like a toddler. I felt genuine fear and dread watching this movie, as I spent the entirety of it expecting something terrifying to happen. Something I despise about most horrors (modern ones especially) is when a jump-scare is built up to (or the classic build up, but nothing happens) but there were moments in this film where jump-scares were so spontaneous they had me literally leaping from my seat. Obviously, it does have some built up jump-scares, but even these are effective. One that will always stick with my mind is the scene where we see a lawnmower going along some grass, accompanied by silence. Obviously something is about to happen any time now. It goes on for so long, the tension makes it truly terrifying, and when the scare hits, prepare for a full on brown pants moment.
The story of the movie is interesting to say the least. I won't go into too much detail in case you haven't seen it, so here's a brief overview. The film opens with a shot of a family hanging (morbid I know) but this is a great example of foreshadowing. Crime writer Ellison into home of the family we saw hanging with his wife and their two children, one of which begins experiencing bizarre night terrors upon moving into the home. Only Ellison knows about what happened at the home, he intends to use the murders as the basis for his new book, and hopes that his research will turn up the fate of the family's fifth member, a little girl who disappeared following the murders. He finds a box in the attic containing a projector and several pieces of footage that are each labelled as innocent home movies. As he watches the films, he discovers that they shows families being murdered in various ways including the hanging that opened the movie. He notices a strange figure in one of the films, and then realises the figure is in all of the films, watching over the murders along with a strange symbol. With the films he discovers childish drawings depicting the murders, along with crude sketches of the demonic figure, identified as "Mr Boogie". He consults a local police officer and discovers that the murders shown in the films took place at different times, beginning in the 1960s, and in different cities across the country. He also learns that the families were all drugged before being killed; and that a child from each family went missing following every murder.
I'll leave it there and let you watch the rest of the film for yourself. The story is consistently interesting throughout and genuinely captivating. The ending becomes fairly predictable as you get further into the film, and yes, they've done the classic horror movie cliché and left it open for a sequel (Which I can only imagine will be exactly the same as this movie if it's ever made). The acting is also good, with Ethan Hawke providing a very believable role, even when it's just him and a projector on screen, we really feel as vulnerable as his character is.
Now for the criticisms. The worst part of this movie is the trailer, it reveals way, way too much about the plot, and shows off lots of the jump-scares (I can only assume the majority of the people in the cinema had not seen the trailer, because people were still terrified by these moments.) So if you haven't seen the trailer and intend to watch this movie, do not watch the trailer. My only other complaint would be the venue. As I said, this is the first horror film I saw at the cinema, and after buying the movie on DVD, I wasn't scared at all watching it a second time. I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities of why this happened. 1. Because I've seen it all before. 2. Because I was constantly waiting for a really loud noise and something to flash in front of the giant screen. Thinking back, the reason I jumped so much at some scares may have just been because of how loud the cinema was. See for yourself I guess.
My rating for "Sinister": 7/10