great, despite some flaws

Rating: 8/10 (25 November 2012)

Sinister is one of those movies that received a lot of negative reviews for predictable reasons. It is too reliant on horror tropes and jump- scares, tries to give the movie gravitas by using a snuff-movie aesthetic, and the characters are not particularly well-rounded or likable. And while these criticisms hold up, as a fan of horror movies I can still say I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Warts and all, Sinister does something that less and less movies do these days: it scared the crap out of me. And beyond that, it did it without resorting to the usual fare of extreme violence and cynicism, while still maintaining an extremely brutal and grisly atmosphere.
Our movie starts out with crime writer Ellisson Oswalt, moving into a new home to investigate the gruesome murder of a family for his upcoming novel. He is down on his luck, his latest successful work being written ten years ago, and is aching for new success. It is in this house where he finds a collection of Super-8 tapes that shows families being together at various family outings, cut to a bleak, poorly lit scene were these families are murdered in the most horrific ways possible. Against his better judgement, he decides not to go to the police with these tapes, but uses them as material to write a new non-fiction novel that he hopes will bring him new success. As the story progresses, he discovers that he might have gotten more than that he bargained for, and that something inexplicable is going on, and horror fans can pretty much fill in the blanks from there.
Ellisson, played by Ethan Hawke, is very similar to the self-centered alcoholic writer for whom his work absorbs him to the point he neglects his family. Mildly arrogant, obsessive and easily possessed by both internal and external demons, he is not the most original character. But Ethan Hawke plays him well, and he is well-rounded enough to carry the story. His character traits, tropes or not, hooked me in and made the character empathetic enough to be interested into what happens during the rest of the story. The rest of the characters are very much set- dressing. Not particularly deep or involving and very much used as devices for the movie. Ethan Hawke pretty much has to carry the movie, and despite the fact his character is old as dirt, he is pretty compelling.
But even though the characters are clichéd, and the story is slightly predictable, this movie is still pretty great. The main reason is simply because its scary. The videos that Ellisson discovers are genuinely disturbing, the build-up of the story is methodical and grisly, slowly working towards great jump-scares (and I love jump-scares. Screw you if you dislike cheap shocks, if it makes me jump out of my seat I like it), all with a phenomenal atmosphere to boot. Props also for the music and sound effects in this movie. The entire house creaks and fumbles, the atonal, dreary music gives the movie a strong sense of dread and despair, and the ominous music that plays as Ellisson watches the Super- 8 video tapes made me feel genuinely queasy.
Sinister to me falls into a list of movies that had mixed reviews because of the obvious flaws of the story and characters, but I can still heartily recommend because they genuinely scared me and were rich with atmosphere. Films like The Strangers, The Woman in Black and Rec, for me, also fall under that category. Scary, atmospheric movies that deserve way more praise than they received, and deserve some recognition. I can heartily recommend this movie if you like a good scare.
This review can also be found at my blog: http://dutchentertainmentjunkie.blogspot.nl/2012/11/sinister_25.html