This fresh thriller is about a true-crime novelist Ellison (Ethan Hawke) who moves his family into a house, which previously belonged to a murdered family, doing this for inspiration and investigation into his next great book. Apparently in the previous family there were five members, four being mysteriously hanged and a little girl going missing in which is thought to have been child abduction. After finding a box of home movies and a projector he watches the reels and to his horror finds these innocent home movies are really video recordings of gruesome deaths suffered by families. The further Ellison investigates he starts to find links between the deaths and who is responsible for them.
This is undoubtedly creepy for the first hour, creating a similar theme to The Shining, with a thrilling and mysterious opening half hour, but after this first hour, the film goes downhill. Sure, a horror/thriller should have "jumpy bits" but the second half of the film ridiculously overuses them. To what could have been an incredibly good film, the obvious, predictable horror lets it down. Even if I did jump out of my skin a couple of times, I knew when the scares were coming. The acting of Ellison's wife (Juliet Rylance) is also a little below par, being quite a 1 dimensional character.
But overall, Sinister is a very creepy, scary film and despite its flaws, creates an eerie atmosphere and is good fun. Worth watching and although it doesn't live up to horror of the year, it's certainly something different.
Rating: 7/10
Think Sinister is overrated? Is it the best film you've seen this year? Tell me by commenting below.
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