. If you're not afraid, don't mind a little predictability, and love the random hair-raising loud noises, then go see "Sinister" and find out for yourself!

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2013)

It's been a while since I've seen a horror movie in the theater, so with a friend we decided to give "Sinister" a go. The plot intrigued me enough to want to see this film; a writer who stumbles upon 'snuff' footage and unfortunately decides to do a little hands-on research. As the title suggests, the footage is rather 'sinister', and I would not suggest anyone who happens to reside in a big creepy house in the middle of nowhere to view this film!
Without exposing too much, "Sinister" begins with a struggling writer – Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) – who once wrote a top true-crime novel, but has continuously failed to produce anything of any worth since. I actually missed the first 15 minutes of this film, but somehow he discovers several 8mm snuff footages' that dates from the 1960s to the 1980s; all of differing horrific and mysterious transgressions. Oswalt embarks on the quest to dig up more information and clues to the unsolved crimes from the footage, and sadly moves his whole family into the house where one of the original crime footage was exhibited. Of course without mentioning the important details, being these crimes were LITERALLY committed in the very same home. Weird stuff starts happening, more open-ended truths uncovered, and yadda yadda; basically it becomes another one of THOSE types of horror flicks.
8mm footage might immediately make you want to relate to the film "8mm" with Nicholas Cage; in case you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it! This movie is NOTHING like it however, only perhaps the idea of the snuff and the eerie constant re-visitation of the footage.
In terms of acting, other than Ethan Hawke (who was pretty well cast here – managing to project his paranoia and obsessions onto the audience), there weren't many major players. "Sinister" isn't a gory slasher flick, but more so of suspense and well-timed peculiar noises which put the audience on edge. A lot of the scenes were shot inside the house during the darkest hours, which attributed to its strongest points.
"Sinister" was a good watch, but not a great watch – I really wish it had a better ending. Great suspense horror films however, are hard to come by, and are almost all pretty predictable. If you're not afraid, don't mind a little predictability, and love the random hair-raising loud noises, then go see "Sinister" and find out for yourself!