Sinister Review
Sinister, from The Exorcism of Emily Rose‘s Scott Derrickson is the story of Ellison, a true-crime writer who, desperate for one last hit book, moves his family into a house that was the scene of a horrifying murder in order to write about the investigation. It is not until he finds a box of Super 8 films in the attic that he realises there is more to this set of murders than a run of the mill killer. The films, each titled with the name of an innocuous activity, documents a terrible murder of a family. As the strange occurrences begin in the house, he must weigh his need for success against the safety of his family.
Ethan Hawke is excellent as the dissatisfied writer. He is still smarting from his failed and obviously vilified attempts at fiction; a perfect reason for his refusal to move his family away from the house’s evil influence. Juliet Rylance, as his increasingly frustrated wife, manages to provide a set of normal problems to mirror the supernatural ones Ellison faces. The fury and disappointment feels very realistic and adds a different aspect to the film. It was surprisingly refreshing to find the course a relationship takes in a horror film is actually one that has real-world plausibility.
The Super 8 camera is lovingly given centre stage by Derrickson; it is almost part of the cast. The emphasis placed on it and the films produce an almost Pavlovian response, where the buzzing and ticking of the camera coming to life invokes an excited chill of fear. Brilliant. The Super 8 films themselves are genuinely scary, the soundtracks beautifully sinister, with enough shown to raise the pulse. ‘Lawn Work’ in particular is just superb, shocking and terrifying in its violence, and Hawke’s response is spot on – my own mirrored it almost perfectly.
Surprisingly for a film that relies mostly on sustained tension, there is even a gentle infusion of humour with the introduction of the Dewey-like character, Deputy So-and-so, something that often does not work in horror films. Even the titles of the snuff films are deliberately humorous, at the very least ironic, once the contents are revealed. The high quality of the acting, and writing, do much to assuage the usual pitfalls of the genre where character is concerned.
Perhaps there are a few too many haunted house clichés – noises in the attic, faces in the window – but there is enough originality in the rest of the film to carry these familiar motifs. There are a few indications that this is a mainstream horror, rather than anything hardcore – where is the arterial spray? The engorged tongues and burst blood vessels in the hanging victims? There are also some unnecessary portions that fail to add anything to the film. The ghostly apparitions just seem superfluous, actually detracting from the suspenseful atmosphere. The end’s revelation also suffers from a little too much extraneous visual explanation, a subtler, more suggestive path would have been more successful.
The film is shot in muted greys and blues, lending an almost antique feel to it, echoed by the flickering Super 8 films, and filling the atmosphere with a quiet unease. Derrickson is also notably stylish, making use of reflections, shadows and smoke to produce a touch of chilling beauty to the film. Though ‘jump-scares’ – still reigning as the current vogue in the genre – can be effective, they are less satisfying than the steady build-up of tension that a really good horror film creates. Thankfully and refreshingly, Sinister delivers. The ending, with its big reveal, is sufficiently shocking and violent and, unlike too many of this film’s brethren, is the pay-off the film deserves.
The extras on the DVD are a couple of commentaries, a whacky pseudo-science featurette about the ‘fear factor’ and a mini documentary about supernatural ‘bumps in the night’ in an Ohio murder house. As always, not particularly exciting.
Hannah Satan Turner