Strange how a film can surprise!

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2012)

Sinister follows the character of Ellison (Ethan Hawke), a true-crime novelist who purchases a new home with the hopes of writing a successful book. After moving into his new home, he discovers a box of old home movies that depict previous families who lived in the house, as well as their murders. As Ellison looks further into the mystery behind the tapes, he discovers that the murders all have ties to a supernatural entity known only as "Bagul". Bagul exists in images of himself and runs the risk of making Ellison's family the latest casualty of the house.
Director Scott Derrickson cleverly used a variety of different camera angles on several key occasions in the film to express the fear and shock of the victims, and the use of sound to depict this was done in a horrifying way. As in many films, actors were used to portray the characters. Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and Clare Foley acted out the most prominent characters in the film. The camera was operated by George Bianchini, in his usual unpredictable manner. Overall I thought the film will pretty much do what it wants to do: make plenty of money. And if people get entertained in the mean time, all the power to them. I thought it was one of the scariest films I had seen this year, and I like being scared so for me this was good.