RaTKiN's Movie Rants: SINISTER

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2012)

As his career is in a slump, a true crime writer is desperate to write another best-seller. He likes to be close to his writing subject, so he moves to a house where, unbeknownst to his family, terrible events occurred. It gets even more sinister when he finds a mysterious box in the attic, containing several tapes of 8mm film stock...
Writer-director Scott Derrickson serves up a horror movie not unlike his previous scare-fest The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) in terms of mood and execution. Through an exceptional and non-conventional soundtrack, the grainy and scratchy found film footage and the overall solid acting performances, Sinister manages to evoke a very chilling atmosphere, without feeling the need to resort to gore.
The first Act does a good job setting up the characters and their conflicts. Even though their initial predicament is quite common in horror films, it doesn't ruin the uncomfortable eerie mood the film is going for and it offers some form of explanation for the choices certain characters will make. For some, this explanation may not be sufficient to suspend their disbelief later on in the movie, but I personally didn't find this to be that troublesome.
My biggest gripe with Sinister is its structural repetitiveness. Starting from Act 2, tension is built and released at least five times in the exact same way: Family conflict/character development => Man watches some film and switches it off because he got freaked out by it => Man hears strange sounds in his house and sneaks through the hallway to investigate (these scenes are mostly too long) => Back to family conflict, etc.
Generally, this kind of repetition would not be fatal for a sober, slow-burning movie like this one, if each iteration would present something new or if some kind of plot/character evolution is shown throughout. Sadly, except for the fact the strange phenomena get worse, this really isn't the case. This lack of fresh content makes for a second Act that feels much too long. It doesn't help that a lot of the tension build-ups end with the typical sudden movement - loud noise combo. Luckily, these cheap scares are supported by the feelings of dread during the moments that precede them. Ultimately, it's up to you to feel or decide if you can forgive the film for its "easy tactics".
The middle Act is also where the "face of evil" is shown. I don't know how to feel about this. If this movie had different pacing, I'd probably say the enemy is shown too early and therefore loses all of its mystique. This rings even more true when make-up effects and creature design are rather uninspired, and you get the feeling you've seen it many times before. But in Sinister, I guess the relatively early revelation moved the plot forward in an already (too) slow-moving plot, so it didn't bother me as much as it might have otherwise.
The third Act starts off with one of the characters making a decision that some viewers will say "should have been made earlier". As I said before, to me the initial character setup was enough to buy this character's decision-making, but I wouldn't be surprised if not everyone will feel the same way. While the movie really took its time in the second Act, it's a shame the ending felt pretty rushed. It deviates from the classic "screenwriting 101: how to write a smashing knicker-soiling ending, the Hollywood way", which will probably polarize viewers. I found it clever in some ways, and it certainly produced a smile on my face, as it was easily the scariest sequence for me.
If you're not a fan of the genre, I doubt Sinister will offer you a rewarding movie experience. Gorehounds will need to look elsewhere as well. It's certainly not a terrible film, but it needs to rely too much on its atmosphere of dread. If you like your horror served creepy and slowly getting under your skin, with feelings of unease very aptly evoked by a great unorthodox soundtrack (check out the band ULVER) and grungy found footage sequences, and you can forgive the film for some of its cheap scares, then this film might be for you.
There once were ten little rats, who went in their movie-hole to watch SINISTER. How many of them came out alive at the end? 6,5/10 !