Movie Review – Sinister (2012)
Paranormal horror films are about a dime a dozen these days.
Whether it’s some sort of demon trying to get you, “found footage” of ghosts in your house, or being possessed, this genre has been exploited in many ways recently. While some of the films are fresh and give the audience plenty of new material, other films tend to be repeats of past ideas or concepts. And still other films will attempt to present a fresh idea but fail miserably and get lost in the cliches.
That’s kind of where 2012′s paranormal horror film Sinister comes into play.
Produced as a low-budget paranormal horror film, Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt, a true-crime author who becomes obsessed with the Super 8 mm snuff films he finds in the attic of his new home. Fred Thompson plays the sheriff of the small town, a man who is not pleased with Oswalt’s reputation of casting police officers in a negative way. James Ransone plays Deputy So-And-So, an eager cop who wants to help Oswalt research the material for his new book. Rounding out the cast is Vincent D’Onofrio as Professor Jonas, a specialist in the occult who helps Oswalt understand just what is happening in his home.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Sinister begins with the showing of an 8mm film. We see four people blindfolded and bound with nooses around their necks. An unknown person cuts a massive tree branch. The branch falls to the ground which acts as a counterweight and lifts the four people into the air, strangling them to death.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
The film jumps forward and we see true-crime author Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) and his family moving into a new home in a quiet town. His daughter, Ashley, is furious about moving into the new house and wants the family to move back to their last home. Ellison’s wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), seems a little bit suspicious and asks her husband if a murder happened a few houses away. Ellison assures her that it’s not true. As we soon see, the tree that was used to hang the people in the introduction is in their backyard.
The town’s sheriff (Fred Thompson) arrives and gives an un-welcome to Ellison Oswalt. It seems that Oswalt’s latest true-crime book, Kentucky Blood, cast the police officers and investigators in a negative manner, nearly blaming their mistakes for letting a killer walk free. The sheriff has read the book and knows of Ellison’s reputation as an author, so he isn’t too pleased to see him moving his family into this town.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Ellison is carrying some stuff up to the attic when he sees a black scorpion walking on the attic floor. He drops his box on the insect, killing it. After that he discovers a lone box containing a projector and several reels of 8mm film, each reel labeled like a fond family memory.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
That night after dinner, Ellison is eager to begin working on his latest true-crime book, one that researches the mysterious and still unsolved death of the family that was hanged in the backyard. He sets up his office with all of his research and crime scene photos and gets to work. Maybe some of the mystery is explained on the 8mm film he found in the attic. Ellison sets up the projector and begins playing one of the reels of films. The first reel is of the family that was murdered here. An innocent scene of the family playing in the backyard turns to shock and horror when Ellison witnesses the footage of them being hanged. Two questions remain: Who took the footage? What happened to one of the daughters?
Ellison goes outside to seek answers to the footage and murder. Back inside the house he hears a spooky sound but it’s only Ashley sleepwalking. He takes her back to bed and then returns to work. A second 8mm film reel shows a different family having fun. Once again, that fun memory turns into horror when somebody traps the family inside a car and then burns them alive.
Knowing that he has actual video recordings of people being killed, Ellison briefly decides about whether to take the evidence to the police department. He decides against it as these murders could make one spectacular true-crime book, giving instant fame and stardom. Ellison hears another spooky noise and investigates. He approaches a large box and suddenly his son, Trevor, jumps out and screams at him. Trevor is having another one of his notorious nightmares. Ellison and Tracy take Trevor outside to calm him. The next morning the boy has no memory of the nightmare or being inside the cardboard box.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
That day Ellison goes back to work in the office and watches another 8mm reel. It’s another home movie of a different family. Just like the others, this video starts out innocent before it shows the family being killed. This time the victims are tied to pool chairs and then drown in a swimming pool.
When looking closely at the film reel, Ellison notices someone or something peculiar in the water. It looks like a person. As he’s investigating it the film reel suddenly bursts into flames. Ellison puts out the fire and researches a way to preserve the 8mm film. He fixes what he can and plays it again. This time Ellison records the film with a digital camcorder so he can further analyze the film on his computer.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
That night Ellison continues with his research and watches another 8mm film. This time around the family members are bound in bed and they all have their throats cut with a knife. While examining the film he discovers a strange symbol painted on the bedroom wall. He also adjusts the film’s color setting and is able to read a textbook in the film. Knowing the date and location, Ellison searches online and is able to determine which family was murdered in the disturbing home movie.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
While researching the family murder, Ellison hears more spooky sounds in the house. He searches the home and ultimately takes his investigation of the spookiness into the attic. He flips over a box lid and finds a scarlet kingsnake. The snake slithers away before Ellison can kill it.
The box lid that the snake was hiding under adds more to the mystery of the 8mm film reels. Ellison is disturbed when he looks closer and finds a bunch of children’s drawings of the murders on the tapes. Each drawing also has an unknown man known only as “Mr. Boogie.”
Ellison suddenly falls through the attic’s floor, accidentally recording a video of himself while falling through the floor. The paramedics arrive and treat his injury. It’s at that time that Ellison meets a sheriff’s deputy that he nicknames Deputy So-And-So (James Ransone). Deputy So-And-So knows all about Ellison Oswalt’s previous books and wants to help the author research his current book. Ellison reluctantly agrees and gives the deputy some material to research.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
The next day, Deputy So-And-So calls Ellison with answers to his research. He gives him all the names and addresses of the murder locations from the 8mm film reels. After that Ellison examines the films closer and discovers the “Mr. Boogie” man in each of the videos. He then watches the video of himself falling through the attic floor and is horrified when he sees several small ghostly hands pressing down on his shoulders. Horrified, Ellison closes his laptop and goes to bed.
Ellison wakes in the middle of the night and discovers the projector playing in his office. He stops it and then looks out the window. Ellison thinks he sees Mr. Boogie standing in the bushes, so he takes a flashlight and a baseball bat and goes to investigate. It’s actually his son, Trevor, and he’s having another nightmare. Ellison takes Trevor inside and tells Tracy where he found him.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Ellison returns outside to get his flashlight and baseball bat, but a neighbor’s dog stops him. What he doesn’t see is that the dog is actually barking at the apparitions of children standing behind him. The children vanish as Ellison returns inside the house.
Deputy So-And-So returns the next day and gives Ellison more information about the murders, including the fact that all of the people were drugged before they were killed. Adding to the murder mysteries, in each case a child from the family also went missing before the bodies were discovered. The deputy is examining Ellison’s evidence in the office when he spots a picture of Mr. Boogie. Not knowing anything about the person/creature, the deputy refers Ellison to Professor Jonas, an expert in the occult and demons.
That night Ellison watches the final 8mm tape. This time a family is tied and lying on the grass when somebody runs over them with a lawnmower. Ellison is sick to his stomach after watching the gruesome act caught on tape.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
After watching the final tape, Ellison has an online video conference with Professor Jonas (Vincent D’Onofrio). Professor Jonas explains that the symbol in the videos are related to a pagan demon named Baghuul, an obscure creature dating back to Babylonian times. It’s also an eater of children as he needs to consume their souls in order to survive. Baghuul finds some way to trick children so that they can cross into his realm and become his victim. Professor Jonas leans towards a theory that all of the instances of Baghuul’s symbol appearing in the 8mm film reels are unrelated considering the distance and time between the murders. The symbol may have been used as some sort of cult initiation and nothing to deal with Baghuul himself.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Late that night Ellison awakens to find the projector once again running by itself in his office. He always keeps the door locked so that his kids can’t look at his research and have nightmares. He takes a baseball bat and creeps around his house, trying to find the person responsible for messing with his projector. We see apparitions of the missing children staying just out of his sight as he moves around the house. We also see one of the apparitions briefly making contact with a terrified Ashley in her bedroom.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Not finding anything, Ellison spends the rest of the night with his baseball bat on the living room couch. Deputy So-And-So speaks with Ellison the next morning, expressing his concern about Ellison’s obsession with the murders and how it might be affecting his mind.
That day Ashley gets in trouble for painting on walls outside her bedroom. The girl reveals information about the previous occupants and Tracy discovers that the house itself was the location of the murders. She and Ellison get into a big fight about the house and the murders and his obsession with writing the true-crime novels.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Ellison wakes that night and hears a projector playing somewhere in the house. He follows the sounds and discovers that the attic’s ladder is down and noises are coming from up there. In the attic are the apparitions of the missing children, all of them are sitting around and watching one of the 8mm film reels. Baghuul suddenly appears and scares Ellison right out of the attic.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
This ghostly encounter pushes Ellison to the breaking point. He takes the 8mm film reels and projector from his office and burns them in the backyard. He then tells Tracy to gather their kids and to get in their car. He’s had enough of this house. They’re heading back to their old home. The movers can pack their belongings and move them out of the haunted house. Ellison speeds down the road and gets pulled over by the sheriff. Since Ellison and his family are leaving the town for good, the sheriff rips up the speeding ticket.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Back in their old house, Ellison receives an e-mail from Professor Jonas containing some scanned images. They have another video conversation and Professor Jonas reveals that most of the images related to Baghuul have been destroyed over the years because of superstition. It turns out that people believed that Baghuul actually lived in the images themselves and the images served as gateways into his realm. Supposedly Baghuul would take possession of whoever saw the images and make them “do terrible things.” Children are especially vulnerable to Baghuul’s powers.
What’s also disturbing to Ellison is that the ancient drawings show scorpions and snakes, some of Baghuul’s symbols. Ellison is spooked enough to cancel his book plans and delete all of the photo and video evidence from his laptop. Maybe destroying the images will close Baghuul’s portal into this world.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Upstairs in his attic the mysterious box with the film projector and 8mm film reels has found its way to Oswalt’s former house. There’s no destroying it. It’s part of his life until Baghuul makes the next move. Inside the box is an envelope containing extended endings to the 8mm film reels. Ellison splices the endings with the correct reels while receiving a phone call from Deputy So-And-So. The deputy tells him that all of the previous murders are connected. It turns out that each family lived in the previous family’s home. Since Ellison moved his family out of the previous house, Ellison completed the pattern and placed his family in line to be the next victims of Baghuul.
Ellison plays the newly extended film reels on the projector. Each of the murder scenes ends with footage of the missing child actually committing the acts of murder. The children were the killers.
Sinister (2012) – (c) Summit Entertainment
Ellison takes a drink while watching the film reels and suddenly becomes ill. His drink was drugged by his daughter, Ashley. The girl has drugged the whole family and bounds them all with tape. We see her take an axe and kill them all before using their blood to make artwork on the walls.
After the murders Ashley watches the 8mm footage of the event. The film shows the missing children watching Ashley, but they flee when Baghuul appears. Baghuul is last seen carrying Ashley into the video playing from the projector.
So is Sinister any good?
Yes and no. Mostly no.
For starters, Sinister has a great concept of this Baghuul demon who appears in photos and videos. It’s an obscure demon and the concept of him manipulating and feeding on children is interesting.
But that’s it for the good part of Sinister. The rest of the movie falls flat and results in a greatly disappointing horror film.
For starters, Sinister isn’t much of a scary movie. It has a few jump scenes with loud noises and sudden images. Other than that the movie relies on the creepiness of families being brutally murdered by children.
The entire movie sets up the father as ultimately being the killer, but in the end we know that it was really his daughter. The problem is that we don’t see any evidence or clues of the daughter being the killer. We know that she likes to draw on the walls, she’s unhappy with their new home, and one night she sees one of the apparitions of the missing children in her bedroom. But that’s it. How she became possessed by Baghuul is never explained. Ashley never saw her father’s research in the murders, and she never saw the 8mm footage from the box in the attic.
So how does Baghuul end up possessing the girl?
Why did we keep seeing apparitions of the missing children throughout the movie, especially since they intentionally stayed out of Ellison’s sight until that scene in the attic? If they meant to warn him of Baghuul, then they would have made their presence known more clearly. But they don’t. We, the viewers, know about the ghosts, but their time on screen is a waste of time since they don’t have any interactions with the main characters until the end of the film.
On a side note, those dead children didn’t even have a creepy appearance or look like ghosts. The movie did a poor job presenting them as victims of Baghuul.
Speaking of Baghuul, it would have been great if we could have seen more examples of him popping up in older photos and videos. Why is the only recent evidence of the creature just in those 8mm film reels? Shouldn’t this demon be seeking kids all around the world, and wouldn’t paranormal websites have at least some physical evidence of him? The movie made a point of showing Ellison doing a couple of Google searches for other topics. Why didn’t we see him try to research Baghuul and find more evidence of him?
Are we supposed to believe that those handful of 8mm film reels are the only recent evidence of Baghuul? What about all of the digital photos and videos that people have taken around the world? Somebody out there must have captured evidence of Baghuul and posted it online.
Sinister (2012) – movie trailer
Like I stated earlier, Sinister has a good concept going with Baghuul and the demon causing children to commit acts of murder. The main problem is that Sinister fails to deliver this story in a creepy, horrific, or even an interesting manner. Had the writers and director taken a completely different approach, this could have been a really awesome and spooky paranormal horror film.
But it’s not even close to being a good horror movie. Not by a long shot.
