Sillister

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2012)

I made a mistake when I first read the description on IMDb, which has now since changed – ha, of Sinister. The first two words read: "Found footage" and even though I read the remaining synopsis, my desire to see this was lost on found footage.
It also didn't help that I'm not into ghost/haunted house stories, or that I was turned off by the tagline: "From the Producer of 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Insidious'" – both, of which, I didn't care for or the over-advertisements, as I saw the film's poster all over the place, including the bus stop in front of my office for months.
Nevertheless, with the encouragement of some of my on-line friends and the fact that I do like Ethan Hawke, I gave this a shot and I didn't fully regret it.
Sure, the movie does provide (some) found footage – so much so, it's the main definition of the term, and it's a ghost story, but the grand substance involves a deep story of a family man's Red Dragon'ish investigation into several "unrelated" family murders and I always dig that kind of mystery plot.
Hawke does hold up, as much as he can, though I feel maybe someone else would've been more active in emotions from all the events. I can't say the same about the cardboard cutouts the actor/actresses who played his family. They weren't just incidental to the actions of head-of-family and writer, Ellison (Hawke,) but their performances were all-but boring and staged.
What was interesting was his peering into the murders of several families and subsequence disappearance of one of the children of said families. He lazily uses a far-out Deputy Dewey clone over an easy internet search and somewhat brings his family to the brink of crazy while uncovering the truth.
As stated, I'm not a ghost story/haunted house fan, but I'll admit to some actual scares and absolute jumps from me – even when I knew what should be coming. That said, most of the "shocks" were positively silly, including the laugh-out-loud final frame.
Sinister is a mostly well-made film with good cinematography, score, decent twists and genuine scares. Despite its just-above average runtime, you'll desire more time to uncover the mystery Hawke's character is writing about alongside him. And for that, it's a recommendation.