Movie Reviews

Ellison Oswald (Ethan Hawke) is a true crime writer who’s looking for a new hit. Desperate to relive his fifteen minutes of fame,  he and his family move to the house where a year prior a gruesome quadruple murder took place. Of course, he fails to mention this little bit of trivia to his wife because let’s face it, it’s not exactly the kind of thing the wife would want to hear when you have a kid that’s already prone to night terrors.

Things take a turn for the worse when Oswald finds a box of home movies in the attic (nevermind how they got there) that he hopes will provide him with a better insight in the previous occupants’ lives. Instead these movies turn out to be disturbing snuff films that are all connected somehow and it’s not long before strange things start to happen in his house at night. Meanwhile the poor guy is unable to count on the police department’s cooperation because he’s known for trashing their work methods in his previous books. And on top of that he’s stuck with a wife who has had about enough of her hubby’s shenanigans. Yeah, you’d reach for the bottle as well at this point.

Brought to you by director/co-writer Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism Of Emily Rose) and the producer of the Paranormal Activity franchise, Sinister is a real nailbiter. Sure, it combines elements from other movies (8mm, The Ring, The Shining,…) but holy shit, this has to be one of the creepiest movies I’ve seen in a long time! While it is no outright splatterfest, the highly effective use of night sequences and grainy home movies makes sure this one goes for the jugular, providing plenty of scares along the way.