Movie Info
Movie Name: Sinister
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): Movie Release Date
MPAA Rating: R
A family that hangs together stays together…
Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is a true-crime writer in desperate need of a hit. Moving his family into the home where a child went missing and four of her family members killed in a ritualistic hanging, Ellison gets a break when he discover a tape of the events and other killings from around the country. The tapes are plagued by a strange figure and similarities between the murders. When Ellison realizes he and his family could be the next target, he must find a way to break the cycle.
Directed by Scott Derrickson, Sinister is a horror thriller. The movie premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and received average reviews with a strong box office return.
Sinister seemed like a very generic horror movie that combined a lot of 2000s horror movie tropes…plus, it had one of my least favorite actors in Ethan Hawke. With this, it didn’t interest me much from the start…and watching it didn’t change my mind much.
I am Ethan Hawke…I am Ethan Hawke watching movies…
The film’s plot is unnecessarily convoluted. The killer migrates with people…essentially hitching a ride to their new home and then killing them (from what I gather). It seems not only would someone else match these pieces together (for multiple reasons) but that with today’s tech there would be people all over the stories in the movie (plus the missing kids). I do like that unlike a lot of horror movies that the character said “let’s get the hell out of here”…it just was the wrong choice.
Ethan Hawke continues to be Ethan Hawke in Sinister, and I find him generally not very compelling and very generic. The family just doesn’t have much distinction and scary possession things happen to them. Deputy So & So is played by James Ransone who is ok (playing a Deputy Dewy type character) but also gives me flashbacks of his irritating character on The Wire.
Cool demon…does it do anything?
Sinister also needs more jumps. It is about demons, possession, and scares, but I don’t feel it has enough. It just comes off as very commonplace and it needs something extra to push it up to the next level…like more demons.
Sinister was a pretty dull horror film and never really went past the dullness that it created. The movie is one of those films that relies on generic scares and storytelling…and to me generic horror is worse than bad horror. Sinister was followed by Sinister 2 in 2015.
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