"Sinister" boldly lives up to its name

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2012)

In today's depressing world of the Hollywood sequel machine it's so refreshing to see a film that can still shock, scare and surprise. The director of such a film is Scott Derrickson, who refused to let a big studio dictate how his film would play out, and especially how it would end. He searched until he found a company that let him have complete control, a minor miracle. The result is "Sinister", a film so full of unmentionables and studio "no no's" that it feels almost foreign. What's certain is that the film feels uncomfortable, disturbing, and entirely horrifying.
"Sinister" is about a true-crime novelist named Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), who, in search of his next great story, movies his wife (Juliet Rylance) and two kids to a new town so he can be closer to the crime scene of his planned story. His wife wants to know if they've moved next door to a murder scene "again". He promises "No", and he tells the truth. They've haven't moved next door to the scene of the crime, they've moved into it. Four members of a family were found hanging in a tree out back, and their little girl is still missing.
While unpacking, Ellison uncovers a box of Super-8 films in the attic. Seemingly family home movies, he plays the first one and is shocked at what he finds halfway through. After a few shots of whiskey he returns to watch the rest, witnessing recorded murders before his very eyes. The names on the labels of the home movies take on a sickening double meaning: "Family Hanging Out", "BBQ", "Pool Party", among others. I won't mention the worst one, a segment that is so shocking it left the theatre in a dead quiet, and I'm still trying to shake it.
Unbeknownst to Ellison, something evil lurks within the videos, a demon of ancient days known for doing insidious things, and watching the films releases its evil upon him and his family. It's only a matter of time before it seems he may be next.
There are so many little layers to this film that one wonders how they'll all tie together or if they will even matter by the film's end credits. Surprisingly they do matter, and to Derrickson's credit he brings the house down with a riveting climax that zips everything up tight like a body-bag, without ever stooping into Hollywood Ending territory.
Filmed with a sure eye for framing and with the patience to not burden the film with lots of quick cuts and jump-scares, the director creates a film of suspense that mounts and mounts. When the shocks come, and boy do they ever, they aren't cheap. They're scary as hell.
The script allows for some excellent moments between all of the actors, moments of levity and brief laughter that are more than comic relief (and thank God for any relief this film offers), they're touching and revealing of the characters. Ellison's motivations are strong to stay in the house, but so are his wife's to get outta there. When they finally do reach a decision, it may be too late. At nearly two hours, it's also thirty minutes longer than most horror films and just when you think it's reached a hair-raising climax, you ain't seen nothing' yet! Brace yourselves.
-Thomas Bond