Sinister: CR #29

This is another film I'd been hotly anticipating. The reason why is because it was written by C. Robert Cargill, who's better known as Carlyle from Spill.com. He left the website in order to work on this film, and was even on set while they were making it, which rarely happens. I'd been dying to see it, and I finally did this past week. Was it worth the hype? Let's find out in my review of...

PLOT
Ellison Oswalt is an infamous crime novelist who hit it big with his first novel, but has had little success with his most recent works. He and his family are now moving into a new house where a grisly murder occurred and the youngest child went missing. While storing boxes in the attic, Elli finds a box of old 8mm home films and begins to investigate them, thinking they'll help in his research and in writing his next big hit. What he finds is video footage of multiple gruesome and disturbing murders dating all the way back to the 1960's.



PROS
This film, unlike a lot of other modern horror films, is genuinely scary. The problem with today's horror films is that they rely too much on jump scares and cheap tricks. "Sinister" does have jump scares, but it gets 90% of its horror from disturbing imagery and atmosphere that'll stick with you long after it ends. By the end of this movie, I was literally shaking.

For the first time in maybe forever, the victim has a reason to stay in the house. That's another thing I don't like about horror movies in general, the people could just leave the house at any point but never do for no apparent reason. This film, luckily, gives a good and subtle reason as to why that makes sense.

Ethan Hawke not only does a great job in this film, but he's also a likable character. While he's not perfect, he's only human which makes us sympathize with him even more.

The music is very creepy and makes the silent film footage even more effective.



CONS
There's a few weird pacing issues. Some segments go on way too long and slow the film down. While I understand you need to give the audience a breather, and it's most appreciated. the breather sections just go on a little too long.




CONCLUSION
Now I'm not the biggest horror fan. Most, if not all, of the horror films I've seen have had an aspect to them like comedy or extreme gore that keep them from being full on horror. "Sinister" is full on horror, and in trying to accomplish fear that'll stick with you, this film passes with flying colors. It's scary, creepy, and disturbing while also being a good film in general. I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot look at darkness the same way again. Yet, it's not a perfect movie, but still a damn good one.


RATING
WALK TO


Want to read more of my reviews? Here's last week's: http://newandclassicreviews.blogspot.com/2013/02/die-hard-with-vengeance-cr-28.html