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| Director: scott Derrickson (2012) |
It’s almost Halloween. I know this not
because I looked at a calendar this morning, but because I checked the showings
at my local cinema. Frankenweenie, Paranorman, Paranormal activity 4 and my
choice for Saturday night, Sinister. From director Scott Derrickson, his first
after 4 years since the poor ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake, he has a
lot to prove with his latest foray into the horror genre.
And from the film’s opening shot, super 8
footage of a family of 4 being hanged from a tree in their backyard, Sinister begins
as grimly as it means to go on. Focusing on true crime writer Ellison Oswalt
(Ethan Hawke) and his family. Things begin innocuously enough, he moves into
his new home in a new town so he can attempt to write his next big hit, as well
as solve mystery of a missing girl Stephanie, the 5th member of the
family we see in the film’s opening. It seems that Ellison likes to move as
close as possible to crime scenes, as in his garden is the tree used to hang
the family we saw in the opening shot. From here, Sinister throws everything
from bumps in the night, malevolent spirits and some very grisly violence at
its audience in its almost desperate attempt to generate scares.
And
the thing is it does. If based solely on the originality of its content, Sinister
could and should be thrown of the scrap heap with most of the horror offerings
from the past 10 years. Predictable doesn’t begin to describe it. False scares,
people tripping, strange figures that lurk so obviously in photos that it’s a
wonder they’ve never been noticed . But for its lack on original ideas, Derrickson
does a good job of pacing his film efficiently, giving enough family themed
lowdown to balance out the blood chilling scares. After finding a box of ‘home
movies’ in the otherwise empty attic of this new home (where else would they
be?) they reveal the horrific murders of other families, with each family
having one survivor, the youngest child, who promptly goes missing.
The plot development happens almost
exclusively in these tapes as Ellison watches and rewatches them, hunting for
clues. Without wanting to spoil proceeding too much, the evidence that Ellison gathers
takes the film in a different direction than previously implied, and this
change hurts the film dramatically. It becomes less psychological and
threatening, but the trade-off is an increase in scares, both quality and
quantity. These scares do little to get inside your head and creep you out, but
capitalise of the tension that Derrickson builds up so well with decent camera
work and pulse pounding music. The second half of sinister features a plethora
of scary faces, screaming heads and creepy, half decayed children lurking in
the shadows. It’s a real waste that some
of the jumps are telegraphed to the point where you can see events 2 minutes
before they happen. Yes, the attic isn’t the best place to go at 3am in the
morning, ever.
It’s this stupidity from the characters
that lowers the quality of sinister yet another degree. Why creep round a
darkened house with a torch when it’s sunny outside and you could just open the
curtains? If the attic steps suddenly descend from the ceiling, don’t go up
there. And if the masked serial killer committed all of the murders in the
tapes left in your attic appears in your garden; don’t exit your house to
‘investigate’. These aren’t crimes that are exclusive to Sinister, if
characters were smart in horror films the genre would probably die, but here it
sure as hell damaged my enjoyment of the film.
It has a myriad of flaws, its predictable,
cheap and wont haunt your dreams like it should, but sinister almost
effortlessly generates the scares that horror junkies so badly crave. It’s
nothing that you probably haven't seen before, but sinister is worth its weight
in screams.
5
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