Review by Ben Bussey
Let me get the nit-picking out of the way first: goodness gracious, great balls of banality, is Sinister a prosaic title or what? Fine, so it evokes the atmosphere of the piece, but really, was it a choice between that and Spooky/Eerie/Moody etc? This on top of the prominent credit “From the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious” and I cannot deny that, in spite of the largely positive word of mouth, I went into Sinister expecting nothing more than another glossy, multiplex-friendly haunted house flick full to bursting with unnecessary loud noises and obvious jump scares, of which at least a third would surely prove to be fake-outs.
Is Sinister actually as naff as all that? Not at all. But neither does it retroactively warrant a spot on my best of 2012 list. It’s a perfectly watchable and engrossing account of a rational sceptic coming to the gradual realisation that he’s in the middle of some highly irrational goings-on. When all’s said and done, though, it’s a pretty hollow experience that leaves you more or less the same as it found you.
Still, Sinister does serve to remind filmmakers of one key lesson that can be overlooked: the value of an above-average actor in the lead, who is really treating the film seriously. Happily, that seems to be the case here with Ethan Hawke, who does not come off as unwillingly slumming it the way so many big name actors do when taking on lowly genre roles. Quite the contrary, he comes off genuinely invested in making the role believable and compelling, and his charisma goes a long way to making Sinister work.
As the improbably named true crime author Ellison Oswalt, Hawke fills the time-honoured role of the writer in need of a hit who moves his family somewhere spooky, because that always works out so very well for families in horror movies. To a certain extent I do share Tristan’s feelings that the professional writer as central protagonist is a rather overused genre convention, but as someone who attempts to balance out family responsibilities with a writing career of sorts, I found plenty to relate to in Hawke’s character… though that may have less to do with the writing than with all the sitting in a darkened room watching gory films, all the while hoping the kids don’t wander in. Indeed, I do wonder if there might be some pointed commentary toward horror fans going on here: our perserverance in watching every new bit of nasty that comes our way, even as it gets progressively nastier. In a sense this is perhaps emphasised more by the comparative lack of on-screen unpleasantness, with Hawke’s ever-more horrified facial expressions telling most of the story for the content of the grisly home movies. After all, for the most part Sinister does adhere to the preferred mood of restrained understatement that has long dominated ghost movies, the rise in popularity of which might seem to imply that torture is on the way out. No bad thing, I feel.
Hawke may be very much the star of the show, but this is not to say he’s without able support. As the neglected wife and kids, Juliet Rylance, Michael Hall D’Addario and Clare Foley all fare well, giving believable performances in roles that could easily have lapsed into cliché and/or been completely neglected. Also offering a refreshing break with cliché is James Ransome’s amusingly nicknamed Deputy So-and-So, the young local cop who at first seems nothing more than an overbearing fan of Ellison and an incompetent officer of the law, who in fact turns out to be more vital than he seems.
As a character piece, then, I enjoyed Sinister plenty. But all this talk about it being one of the scariest films in years? Really? I’m not one to play the “I’m so big and hard and none of this shit scares me” card – because I’m bloody well not, and anyway I like it when a horror movie genuinely catches me off guard – but what can I say, Sinister didn’t freak me out in the least. Yes, I was for the most part gripped and enthralled, but I certainly wasn’t terrified at any point. Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why, in spite of the film’s strengths, it really didn’t resonate much with me, nor do I see myself having any great desire to revisit it. Neither am I particularly filled with hope at the news that a sequel is in the works. Let’s not forget that old “from the producers of Paranormal Activity” thing. The last thing we need is another of those franchises churning these out year after year with the usual law of diminishing returns, or more often than not diminishing quality… oh well, as ever I wait to be proven wrong.
Sinister is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray on 11th February from Momentum Pictures.