Movie Review: Sinister

Alright, alright... So I've heard this was "the scariest movie of 2012"... and maybe that's true (for this year so far ~ Hollywood is severely disappointing)... but still.. as a lover of a an adrenaline rush and a few screamy jumps... I really didn't think it was that scary...

Okay, now let me backtrack. I never said I didn't like this movie. But for those with an undeniable love of the chills, lemme tell ya, this may be worth the wait for a redbox or netflix rental..

Now I'm strictly speaking from a creep-lover level. You wanna be scared (I mean, have a hard time sleepin' scared) this movie doesn't live up to the hype. As for the amount of stars (out of five, of course), base on the movie for what it is, I'd say it deserves a solid three out of five.

Ethan Hawke does a fantastic job in the shoes of Ellison Oswalt, the obsessive true-crime writer still desperately holding on to his fifteen minutes of fame and, ultimately, his career as a writer with the prospect of a new book. Of course, that means dragging his family to a new town ~ a place where four people were hung by a tree in their own backyard. A place that now, unknown to Mrs. Oswalt, belongs to Ellison and his family.

Ellison (Ethan) comes across a box of Super 8 tapes while putting some moving boxes up in the attic. You know the drill ~ it always has to be an attic or a basement. In his eyes, he hit the true-crime writer's lottery with footage of not only the hanging of the four people in his new backyard, but other murders as well. Time to pull out the whiskey and CSI-like pin boards ~ there's work to be done if he's ever going to get that movie deal he's been yearning for.

You've heard the slogan for this movie... "Once you see him, nothing can save you." Seems to be the case, but there are a few holes in this story. How did this monster come to live in these Super 8 films? We discover where it originated in the U.S. but never why and how he was "brought back to life." Not enough history is provided to make the monster believable. Mostly we just see Ellison downin' whiskey in his "office" watching grisly murders projected on a white sheet. Oh, and he's awoken a few times in the middle of the night to strange noises, which he goes after with a baseball bat. Like that's going to do much of anything...

Also, if you're going to say that "all evidence of the monster has been destroyed," that leads audiences to assume that images (or films) can be burned to a crisp and be expected to stay that way... not mysteriously reappear perfectly intact... See, things like this just didn't add up, and I was focusing more on "Wtf? But I thought...?"

If you don't look at the story line too closely, you can't see the holes, and in that case, I'm sure it is pretty scary. But for me, to make a movie chill-inducing, I have to believe it. And Sinister just didn't fill in the gaps...

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it ~ Ethan Hawke has always been a favorite of mine, and I really like the idea of the ancient monster adapting to modern times. Ellison's digging into the murders was interesting as coincidences (or are they?) are uncovered. Tons of potential here....

But there needed to be... more... to give it that wow factor. More history. More of a connection of the dots. Less gaping holes.

Like I said ~ three out of five.


Happy Viewing Everyone :)


~ Keely ~