Scaring Up Goose Bumps
True crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is living on his past
glories while looking for his new hit. His books have always caused a bit of a
chaos in towns so you can excuse the local law if they are not happy about his
newest stop. In fact the new house he has moved into is more than just the
house down the street from where a horrific tragedy occurred, it is THE house
that was home to the massacre.
The story is one of a family that
was found hanging from a tree in the back yard. There were of course, some
mysterious things around the case. One of the children was never found and the
case was never truly explained.
Immediately on moving into the
house the strange things start to happen. It seems all centered on a box of
innocuous enough films that were left behind in the attic. They look to have
been left there AFTER they purchased the house and they have sweet titles like
Hanging Out, Pool Party and Lawn Work…but these titles hide what is the true
content of the films. When Ellison starts examining the films he quickly finds
they are videos that capture a gruesome series of murders.
But that’s not all. Strange things
start to happen around the house including their son with “night terrors” and
films that start on their own to name a few. These weird happenings drive
Ellison deeper into his examination of the cases and deeper into the bottle by
his side. As things start to come together, the weird happenings get worse.
Will he ever get to the bottom of this horrific crime scene?
Horror/Thrillers rarely screen for
us in the critical community, and I don’t know why. Sinister is a film that got goose bumps on my arms on a number of
occassions, and that is a success.
What I liked about this film that
was different from many current horror attempts is the ability to put the
crimes in your head and make them slosh around a bit instead of showing you
pits of gore on screen. There is something to be said for a film that makes a
gruesome scene SCARIER without seeing onscreen gore.
The kills in the story are not
pleasant; there is no question about that. But director Scott Derrickson shows
us them through filters whether a film on a screen or shooting the killing with
the view in a mirror that you don’t have to splatter all the blood in the
audience’s face every time.
It’s that imagery in your own mind
of what that kill looks like that creeps you out. That mixed with good sound
creates a film that is a decent scare.
Sure it devolves into some things that are a bit cliché and mainstream. And sure some of the characters act blissfully clueless in the movie, as the horror script goes. But, overall if you are looking for some definite goose bump action…Sinister will scare them up on your skin.
B
Summit Entertainment
Director: Scott
Derrickson
Stars: Ethan Hawke,
Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour 50
minutes
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