Effective horror film

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2015)

Sinister is a classic horror story told with style. A family moves into town to live in an old house that was the place of a brutal tragedy some time ago. Now, in real world, this would merely bring the price down a little bit and that would be it. But of course in cinema world you can pretty much kiss most, if not all, of the family goodbye instantly, as all of you pretty much guessed the very instant I uttered the words "old house". This could very well be a Stephen King novel. It even has a writer as a protagonist. Yet I don't mean that in a bad way. It's an effective formula, if you can keep it from feeling too stale.
Which Sinister does, for the most part. Much of that is helped by the lead man, Ethan Hawke, whose acting capabilities and charisma keep you focused on the film. The atmosphere builds largely around his growing unease and horror as he starts to realize that this time he might have found something real - without having considered what that would mean for him and his family.
The rest of the cast does okay, but none of them stand out or really shine all that much. I have to wonder what this movie might have been if they had gotten another actor of Hawke's caliber.
The other major problem is the ending, like it often is. The majority of the film is mood and atmosphere over slasher horror and jump scares, which is a major plus. There are a couple instances of both, but they're done well and you don't grow tired of them. And then the ending just sort of happens and it's not as satisfying as it could have been. I would like to say I don't mind it being predictable, because in horror the journey is more important, but I will say that it wraps up the loose ends a bit too nicely. There's no punch to it. I will remember Hawke's performance long after I've forgotten this particular ending.
Sinister is one of the better horror films I've seen in years, which to my regret isn't saying all that much. It has a lot of good things going for it, but I get the sense that they just didn't manage to pull in enough talent to really make it work. Definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of horror, though.