Monday 28 January 2013

Sinister 2012, Review


Sinister 2012, Review

Year: 2012
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone
Directed: Scott Derrickson
Running Time: 110 mins





Sinister a cinema release horror/thriller directed by Scott Derrickson some stuff under his belt and quite a few films to come as well (the day the earth stood still, The exorcism of Emily rose and a chip in on the Hellraiser series, one I enjoyed actually, Inferno) a budget of only £3million makes this film quite a success with a worldwide pull in of £47 million.

Possibly due to the addition of paranormal activity and insidious in its Poster and DVD cover pulled in the folks who love them types of films. Now this isn’t a shaky hand cam it’s a proper steady cam filmed film which score bonus points in my books, you should all know I’m not a fan of real filmed films or lost tape/found footage films. Though it does have some found footage moments in there as the main plot it is integral to the story.
So failing true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke where have you been lately man? Anyway check out Gattaca one of his best movies) moves himself and his wife and two kids into a house where a horrific crime took place sometime earlier, The crime you see at the beginning sawn brand hanging of a family, only he knows it’s the actual house though.
His wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance nothing worth mentioning) knows there was a murder in the area though. While he’s putting their stuff away in the attic Ellison comes across some home movies on super 8. He watches these films and see’s that each end in grisly killings and uses these "snuff" films that he finds to help in his research for his new book. Unfortunately he soon finds it’s more than he bargained for, as there is a figure (Bughuul apparently) in each of the films how very SINISTER? Oh bad I know.

As a result his family start to suffer His son and daughter seeing doing and acting strange as does he. Things quickly take a turn for the worst.
The films show that kids from each of the families go missing afterwards. One night, Ellison hears the film projector running and goes up to the attic. There, he finds the missing children in various states of decay, watching one of the films.
Bughuul suddenly appears on camera before physically appearing before Ellison. Ellison takes the camera and the films to the backyard and burns them. Then he wakes his family to tell them that they are moving back to their old house. You know I don’t spoil endings here on The Horror Nation this movie ends just as you could have guessed though, suffice to say Ellison finally becomes famous again at the end, I’ll just leave you with that.
The film is initially quite slow to pick up and has some of the horror film staples. The weary sheriff who doesn’t like the main protagonist due to some mistake he’s made before.
He’s the troubled author who has minor family problems.
All pretty standard and that’s what this film is standard, a standard storyline, standard effects and ok slightly above standard acting. It comes together in quite a good film that’s well worth your time if you have 2 hours spare you won’t feel cheated.
A strong 3 out of 5 for this film!


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