The following review contains spoilers for the film Sinister
by C.S. Kane:
It was with great anticipation I headed to the cinema to watch Sinister. My interest in the film was sparked mainly through the news that Ethan Hawke would be playing the main character Ellison Oswalt. In the end it seemed that Hawke really was the best thing about the movie. He portrays the role of the obsessive true crime writer with a level of anxiety that is gripping. His need to uncover the truth behind shocking and sinister murders was contagious for me as a viewer.
The start of the film shows a family being murdered. This sets us up with the questions Oswalt asks himself from the outset. Why? Who did it? With Oswalt receiving a less than welcoming introduction from the sheriff it becomes apparent that researching grisly murders, particularly those that the police have failed to solve, is his game. Through subsequent and sometimes forced dialogue it becomes apparent the family are in trouble financially and by discovering the truth behind the murders Oswalt can apparently save them.
Cue the mysterious box of Super 8 movies he finds in the attic. This for me was the most dark and demanding part of the film. The physical mechanisms involved from setting the camera up, to hanging the sheet and finally to flicking the projection onto the wall became more difficult to watch as the content of the movies became apparent. In my mind each was worse than the last. With titles like ‘Pool Party’ and ‘BBQ’ it was obvious that they would be gruesome. It is with Oswalt that the audience sits to watch the horrific movies with and there is an air of macabre voyeurism about looking at these grisly scenes with him.
As the plot moves on it seems that the family are beginning to be influenced by the menace surrounding the house. Oswalt becomes more and more unsettled as various ‘shock’ moments plague him. He enlists the help of a local town cop and a professor of the occult as the stress grows. With the kids (Michael Hall D’Addario & Clare Foley) acting out and his wife (Juliet Rylance) losing her, beyond normal, patience Oswalt snaps. In a dramatic moment he rushes outside with the movies and sets them alight before getting the entire family into the car and speeds away from the town.
In what I see as a truly frightening element of the story it becomes apparent that leaving the house doesn’t sort the problem. As in Paranormal Acitivity, produced by the director of this film Scott Derrickson, the cures can’t be shaken that easily. The mysterious box of tapes is back with additional scenes provided. After a conversation with both the kind deputy police officer and the professor, who has discovered what the symbol left at the crimes scenes means, Oswalt realises that it is a supernatural force causing the murderous mayhem.
This led us finally to the conclusion of the film which was not frightening. We finally get to see who murdered the families and that is honestly an unsettling revelation. Yet, the final payoff was overdrawn and the obligatory shock at the end cheapened it for me. The real horror lay in the brutality and visual depictions of the murders and also with the atmospheric tension that Hawke brings to the screen with his performance. Overall it is worth watching but be warned I felt it was let down by the reliance on ‘shock-scare’ tactics throughout.
C.S. Kane is a writer of horror fiction and a DarkMedia contributor. Kane has a penchant for the paranormal and is a true a sucker for Sci-fi. Interests include reading, writing, watching movies and enjoying good food. Keep up with the darker side of life by following Kane on Twitter at @CS_Kane and via the blog: www.cskaneofficial.blogspot.co.uk
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