Well damn if Sinister isn’t a gut punch, even for hardened horror fans like myself.
Sinister carries similar traits as other Blumhouse Productions such as Paranormal Activity or Insidious. Blumhouse films tend to be far more suspense than horror, using fear, dread, and general anxiousness over stupid, vapid villains and unearned jumpscares. Sinister, focusing on a true crime author who finds himself way in over his head in horrendous crimes against families follows suit. And it’s probably one of the better horror films to come out this decade.
Ethan Hawke is Ellison Oswalt, the aforementioned writer, who is so desperate for a hit that he uproots his family and moves them into a house where the previous occupants were suspended from a hanging tree limb for quite a while. Of course, Oswalt, being the good caregiver he is, declines to tell his family they are living in the murder capital of their quite county.
Oswalt stumbles upon a box in his new attic innocuously marked “Home Movies” with a Super 8 camera and some film. Yet those home movies are self-made snuff films of entire families murdered by drowning, burning, or having their throats slashed.
Co-writer and director Scott Derrickson slowly shows Oswalt’s mental deterioration as he stumbles further and further into a possibly decades-old murder plot of families quite effectively. At first, the tapes represent nothing more than grisly crime footage before quickly becoming more macabre and taking Oswalt’s hit-novel determination and turning it quickly into a quixotic task of understanding the unthinkable.
Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill show much of the crime footage early on to then focus on Oswalt as he deals with the underlying issues the move has had with his kids, his marriage, and his sanity as he cradles a bottle of whiskey just to bring himself down. In spite of being a relatively low-budget horror affair, the frights and chills are aplenty without resorting to stock options of spring-loaded cats or shapes appearing in mirrors. But all in all, the film is a slow-burn with no “on-screen” violence, just the psychological torment Oswalt puts himself and his family through.
With the help of local Deputy So-and-So (James Ransone) and a university professor (an uncredited Vincent D’Onofrio), Oswalt begins to piece together the string that ties all the home movies together and the potential Babylonian deity named Bughuul (or more commonly known as MR. BOOGIE!) that are influencing these heinous acts.
And even though no one in their right mind (I guess) would move into a house where multiple murders have taken place, Oswalt’s determination never seems forced or insecure as he honestly believes he is the one to uncover something big and be handsomely rewarded for it. Needless to say, that doesn’t quite go as planned as Oswalt reaches his breaking point and rushes out of town in the middle of the night. Assuming that is that Mr. Boogie couldn’t still find them.
There are so many surprises and jumps in this film that to this day after watching it probably four or five times there is still one scene in particular (those of you in the know, you know which one I’m talking about) that literally make me jump out of my seat in horror.
That is not an easy accomplishment and I give all the kudos in the world to Derrickson, Cargill, and Blum for concocting such a deeply disturbing film that stays with you long after it’s over.
Now, will the sequel be any better? I doubt it but I’m certainly willing to give it a try.
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