Sinister: Movie Review

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Claire Foley, Fred Dalton Thompson (Rated MA – 110 min).

Creepy and original are not words you hear very often when a horror movie comes out. Add to this a ‘found footage’ element and you begin to make judgments of yet another Paranormal Activity style shocker. Thankfully, Sinister is fresh and as already mentioned, turns out to be a chilling night of the creeps.

The great Ethan Hawke may not still possess all of his ‘Reality Bites’ good looks but the talent is still there. He plays true crime author Ellison Oswalt who after a career high with a recent best-seller, has not done much since. He moves himself with family in tow to a lovely house in leafy picturesque up state New York surrounds. Unbeknown to his wife and kids, a horrific mass murder had taken place within the grounds of that very property. The selfish Ellison wants to use this as inspiration for his next book.

Things go awry after the discovery of a box of old film reels with a projector in the attic. The local cops know exactly who this literary menace is and do very little to make he or his family welcome. Things begin getting nasty when visions of the murders are not only projected on the wall; they take Ellison to the edge of sanity.

Hitting the bottle, tensions between husband and wife are rampant while paintings on the wall begin to recall various dreams of the past. The back-story of the victims in the home movies gets all too real. The tension builds, scares mount and the film finishes strong. Not perfect, but haunted house movies don’t get much better than this. Everything from sudden sound effects to cross images of wayward spirits should keep fans of the horror genre happy.

© Shane A. Bassett