SINISTER

Sinister is the story of True Crime novelist (Ethan Hawke) who travels from town to town (with his family) following the trail of unsolved crimes to write about. The first half of this film is quite good, using horror which is deep and dark without being in your face or over-the-top. Filmmakers did a great job of mixing horror with mystery and suspense, never really coming right out and announcing that this is a supernatural thriller. 

Our protagonist moves his family into a house where a brutal murder took place years prior. While rummaging through the attic, looking for clues to help his book, footageof previous mass murders is discovered by Hawke and reviewed throughout the film. Despite investigating a single incident, each of these “home movies” depicts a different murder in which a different family is killed using unique methods in separate locations across the country. The only things all these films have in common is, they are all silent, you never see the camera operator, and an entire family is murdered sans one child never to be seen again. The vintage look of super-eight footage, great acting from Hawke, and gruesome nature of the footage left a lasting impression in my mind without making my skin crawl. The story up until the second half is mysterious and intriguing without being outright confusing, allowing for either a human or supernatural antagonist and really, either would have been alright at that point! 

The second half is another story. Almost immediately after some of the pieces fall together, the story takes boring turn and slaps you across the face with answers to questions that haven't been asked. This ruined any chance of an actual surprise or suspenseful ending. Despite this disappointing turn for the worse, the good aspects of this flick never go away for good. The original creep out factor remains along with a good performance by Hawke but instead of letting the audience use any part of their imagination, more and more blatant, annoying evidence is shoved down your throat. Unfortunately the downturn in storyline comes down a simple “less is more”. This movie was a disappointment to me not because I had high hopes, but quite the opposite. Going into this film I expected more B-rate horror (which is fine!) and instead was given a glimpse of hope only to be let down once again in the second act.

Using discovered footage in a real time story line is a bit of new twist on an old idea but worked well in this case. It allowed screenwriters to take the spookiest aspects of the POV horror genre and combines it with good 'ol fashioned WRITING to churn out a decent affect. 

 I recommend this film only because of how many things were done right for the genre but don't expect to be impressed with it as a whole. All in all I would rate this 6.5/10 with a few extra points for the musical score.