A Crooked Stairs Review: Sinister

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2019)

When the initial teasers and trailers for a new Scott Derrickson horror feature came around, I must admit that I was very intrigued. His work on 'The Exorcism Of Emily Rose' previously for me was a game changer, tying up a killer combination of classic scripting, fleshed out characters and acting- all while adding the little technical flares of visuals and unnerving sound that make a good horror tale come to life. Could he repeat his new found talents...
BASIC PLOT: A true crime writer moves into a new home with his wife and two children. The local authorities initially do not seem too happy to have the family around digging up facts about the towns grizzly past, not to mention the authors potential to get deeply involved in unsolved cases. It's safe to say that what transpires, changes everyone's perspective...
REVIEW: I love the horror genre for many reasons, but for me it has always been very important for a movie to scare effectively while building a solid background. Sinister delivers this straight up. I connected with the family, with the writer who needed to try and elevate his career again but equally with the family who had to deal with the situation as a whole. The script is a solid one, a slightly different take on a few kinds of horror including traditional old school suspense mixed with more modern almost 'found footage' style horror which has become popular in recent years. For me, what director Scott Derrickson and the team have done here so well is to fuse the two together. From the first scene I felt like I was on a journey and the acting from all members of the immediate family was fantastically portrayed.
Derrickson (I was relieved to discover) delivered yet again in his original brand of slow building tension, strange & eerie lighting in key scenes (look out for it in all of his horror work) and sudden intense visuals and sound to create a genuinely griping experience.
Where there cons? Yep. Never wanting to give too much story away, but I feel anyone who has seen the movie will have some reservations with the Scream/Scary Movie Deputy Dewey-esque character. It seemed to just take the viewer right out of an engaging and scary piece and into the realm of what can only be described as comedy. I do wonder who pushed for this particular character to have such a large role in the final cut...
***POSSIBLE SPOILER***
Also, it is just strictly my opinion and not meant to annoy, but while I feel the main horror character in the film has some very nicely shot key scenes (found footage), I think the overall character is just not all that terrifying... At times it seems to resemble a character from the rock band Kiss more than a true horror character. Just my opinion.
***POSSIBLE SPOILER DONE***
VERDICT: Overall despite a few cons, a fantastic piece of horror work from Mr.Derrickson in my humble opinion. It builds a classic narrative around a family in distress, and then we slowly see the creepy elements take place and unfold at an alarming rate leaving the viewer engaged until the end. Thumbs up on this one.