31 Days of Halloween - Day 13: Sinister Movie Review

Nothing fills me with more pride than a fellow writer who gets out there and succeeds at doing what others continuously fail at: writing a good horror movie. C. Robert Cargill, most affectionately known as “Carlyle” from Spill.com, co-wrote the new Ethan Hawke film Sinister and boy, did he do a good job.

The film is about a true crime writer named Ellison played by Hawke, who moves his family into a home where the brutal murder of a family took place. The point of their being there is for him to solve the murder and the disappearance of the youngest daughter of the murdered family. During his investigations, he discovers a box of Super 8 films in the attic, some dating back 30+ years, and all with seemingly innocuous titles on them. The films are anything but mundane. They each depict the grisly murder of a different family. It is here where everything goes to hell for Ellison and his family. His son starts having severe night terrors and weird things start happening around the house to the point where any normal person would’ve moved the first night. This is where some people may have a problem with the film.

Let’s just say this were real life. In real life, if someone had discovered a box of films in their attic depicting a series of murders that may possibly be connected, they would turn them into the police. If, after viewing said films, weird shit starts going down in your house and you see a strange figure in your backyard, you would MOVE! Not this character. His continued stubbornness at solving this case and writing his epic modern version of In Cold Blood blinds him to the danger he is putting his family in. This is also the strength of the movie. Unlike previous films where the main character’s idiotic decisions make zero sense, this character’s deficiency at backing away from the mystery of the films is explained away by his obsession at reviving his flagging career. He needs this book to be a success as it is his last chance to make his writing career work. I thought showing the ego of a success-driven character was a good way of making audiences understand why the family did not just leave initially.

The main draw of the movie for me was the fright factor. I always say that if a film has me covering my eyes, then it’s succeeded at scaring me. If it scares me, then it is a damn good horror movie. There were jump scares, as can be expected, but the better part of the horror came from the creepiness of it all. The way the rooms were always super dark at night when Ellison goes to “inspect that creepy noise.” That feeling you get when you think someone is right behind a door. I especially loved the way the director would frame shots in an effort to amp up the scares. The most frightening aspect of the movie are the super 8 films themselves. Quite simply, these films are unsettling. The movie doesn’t shy away from the gruesome aspects of someone having their throat slit or being hung from a tree in a way to slowly strangle to death. These films made my skin crawl and definitely helped in scaring the audience.

The writers and filmmakers did a good job with this one. It isn’t your typical haunted house or evil monster yarn. You may take issue with the main character and end up hating him by the conclusion of the film, but the fact that the film is purely frightening makes up for any pretentious characters.