Murray
Well-Known Member
Sinister is a horror movie that takes an older formula and celebrates it by breathing new life into it. I'm a fan of the movies that have come out recently such as Sinister, including Insidious and The Conjuring. Sinister follows similar film tactics, camera styles and special effects. If you're a fan of these movies you'll already want to watch Sinister.
The story follows a true crime author who moves his family into a house that had a "murder" take place. This author is known for a book where he discovered something that the police weren't able to do. Since that book he has been unable to reproduce the result but instead has wrote two more books that bring a negative presence to him being there.
The story goes a little something like this. During the moving in of the house, the author of these books who is here to figure out what happened to a missing child in the murder case finds a box of 8 mm films. We're going to get into some spoiler areas, but these aren't things that aren't included in the various previews for the movie, so don't get overly worried if you've seen the preview.
The 8mm films are snuff films illustrating various things happening to people through time. WIth the help of a young detective, the author starts trying to piece together what happened to these families.
The films are a lot of fun and they do a great job with making these little stories tragic and spine crawling. Using old styles of horror writing, they really did a great job creating a dark circle of events.
While all this is going on, the author is dealing with personal issues outside of the investigation of the missing girl. Part of this is that he's a very prideful person. He moved his family for his own reasons and ignored any positive or negative effects to his family. He is constantly trying to recapture lost glory and you can just see how he's losing bits of himself and probably the person who was originally quite successful.
Sinister takes the style of these other movies that I mentioned, because as he investigates deeper into what and who made the films, things begin to get real on a paranormal level. It leaves a very unsettling feeling and the movie does a pretty good job of creating a less than predictable outcome versus some of the other films that follow the same writing and theatrical styles.
My gripes about this film, isn't even related to the quality of the movie or the events within it, its the main character. He's somewhat an anti-hero but its not ever delivered in a way that's straight forward. You don't really like him, but you're not really suppose to. The film's title is really a double meaning. The films, the maker of the films and the paranormal entity within the film is quite sinister, sure I agree with that. However, the main characters motives for what he does is also sinister from the stand point that he's not taking a stance of saying "This is bad and I'm here to accomplish something good." instead he says "This happened and I can use it to achieve X Y Z"
That's not a problem with the film, that's just the truth of the character that's in this movie. With out a true protagonist this film just lacks connection. Instead you think "well his family seems nice, I hope they don't end up being ghost food."
Bottom lines, the movie is a great celebration of the return of horror and the idea of anti-heroes and how to deal with that in modern theatre culture where you don't have that happen that often; especially in horror works where its usually a defined protagonist going after a defined antagonist.
I give the movie a 4.5 out of 5.
Why is it missing that last .5?
- The movie has a lot its trying to capture in less than 2 hours so some sequences are quite rushed
- The main paranormal entity in the movie could have been explored more. There's creepy things that happen, but its largely missing the zing that Insidious and The Conjuring has when they show their own haunting scenes
- There is a dichotomy between his goal and what he does. For example, the story is that he wants to make this amazing story. Yet, he dodges working with the detective that is eager to help him and outside of a professor (there's always a professor) his outside research into the films and cases in the story aren't scratched.
- There is a feeling of incompleteness in demonstrating the hauntings of the characters surrounding the Author in this movie. I think that they were missing a big thing here since hauntings happening to his family is kind of a big deal and you'll see why if you watch the movie.
All of this stuff is nit picking but that's why I write critical works.
The story follows a true crime author who moves his family into a house that had a "murder" take place. This author is known for a book where he discovered something that the police weren't able to do. Since that book he has been unable to reproduce the result but instead has wrote two more books that bring a negative presence to him being there.
The story goes a little something like this. During the moving in of the house, the author of these books who is here to figure out what happened to a missing child in the murder case finds a box of 8 mm films. We're going to get into some spoiler areas, but these aren't things that aren't included in the various previews for the movie, so don't get overly worried if you've seen the preview.
The 8mm films are snuff films illustrating various things happening to people through time. WIth the help of a young detective, the author starts trying to piece together what happened to these families.
The films are a lot of fun and they do a great job with making these little stories tragic and spine crawling. Using old styles of horror writing, they really did a great job creating a dark circle of events.
While all this is going on, the author is dealing with personal issues outside of the investigation of the missing girl. Part of this is that he's a very prideful person. He moved his family for his own reasons and ignored any positive or negative effects to his family. He is constantly trying to recapture lost glory and you can just see how he's losing bits of himself and probably the person who was originally quite successful.
Sinister takes the style of these other movies that I mentioned, because as he investigates deeper into what and who made the films, things begin to get real on a paranormal level. It leaves a very unsettling feeling and the movie does a pretty good job of creating a less than predictable outcome versus some of the other films that follow the same writing and theatrical styles.
My gripes about this film, isn't even related to the quality of the movie or the events within it, its the main character. He's somewhat an anti-hero but its not ever delivered in a way that's straight forward. You don't really like him, but you're not really suppose to. The film's title is really a double meaning. The films, the maker of the films and the paranormal entity within the film is quite sinister, sure I agree with that. However, the main characters motives for what he does is also sinister from the stand point that he's not taking a stance of saying "This is bad and I'm here to accomplish something good." instead he says "This happened and I can use it to achieve X Y Z"
That's not a problem with the film, that's just the truth of the character that's in this movie. With out a true protagonist this film just lacks connection. Instead you think "well his family seems nice, I hope they don't end up being ghost food."
Bottom lines, the movie is a great celebration of the return of horror and the idea of anti-heroes and how to deal with that in modern theatre culture where you don't have that happen that often; especially in horror works where its usually a defined protagonist going after a defined antagonist.
I give the movie a 4.5 out of 5.
Why is it missing that last .5?
- The movie has a lot its trying to capture in less than 2 hours so some sequences are quite rushed
- The main paranormal entity in the movie could have been explored more. There's creepy things that happen, but its largely missing the zing that Insidious and The Conjuring has when they show their own haunting scenes
- There is a dichotomy between his goal and what he does. For example, the story is that he wants to make this amazing story. Yet, he dodges working with the detective that is eager to help him and outside of a professor (there's always a professor) his outside research into the films and cases in the story aren't scratched.
- There is a feeling of incompleteness in demonstrating the hauntings of the characters surrounding the Author in this movie. I think that they were missing a big thing here since hauntings happening to his family is kind of a big deal and you'll see why if you watch the movie.
All of this stuff is nit picking but that's why I write critical works.
