Sinister (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 110 minutes
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Clare Foley, Michael Hall D’Addario, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone, Vincent D’Onofrio
KRS release
Sinister delivers atmosphere and genuine frights aplenty to make it one of this year’s best in the genre, despite the limitations placed on it by the same genre.
The storyline revolves around the set of 8mm films that are genuinely creepy and disturbing
Scott Derrickson, who had directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), is aggressive in his approach as he presents his audience with scares, thrills and a tangible sense of dread and horror. He delivers a different way of doing things and even the jaded horror fan and the most veteran viewer will get the chills.
Ethan Hawke is Ellison Oswalt, a former bestselling true crime novelist who has not been successful in 10 years.
He is so yearning to write a hit novel that he takes his family – wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance), children Trevor and Ashley (Michael Hall D’Addario and Clare Foley) – to live in a house whose previous tenants had been hanged and the youngest boy had disappeared. But he decides not to tell them about their new home’s background.
His aim is to find some hidden information about the happenings or maybe something that the local authorities might have missed. The Sheriff (Fred Dalton Thompson) is not happy about this.
While searching the attic, Ellison finds a box of old 8mm home-made films and a projector.
The films show the hangings that had occurred in the house and other deaths elsewhere. The same symbol and an evil-looking figure appear in each and every film.
Ellison soon has the Sheriff’s deputy (James Ransone) doing investigative work on his behalf.
Meanwhile, his family falls under the attack of strange occurrences that build up inside the house.
The film’s storyline revolves around the set of 8mm films that are genuinely creepy and disturbing. The images Derrickson lays out are freakish enough to live with you for many a day after watching the film.
Derrickson’s forte lies in going against the grain and inserting the spooky images in the least-expected moments.
He also prefers the visual sort of trickery instead of CGI creations to deliver his treasure chest of scares.
Another advantage for Sinister is that it has an excellent protagonist at its core. Hawke is the perfect lynchpin for the audience and takes us along with him for the ride.
Excellent supporting turnouts are also provided by Rylance, Thompson and both child actors.
An industrial musical score from Christopher Young provides even more tension to the proceedings and is the perfect accompaniment to the dollops of freakiness and macabre that the film delivers with sinister aplomb.