I always hate having to see a movie waste potential. Sinister could have been an incredibly freaky film. It had everything there-a creepy concept, a strange villain, a coherent story line and a welcome performance from Ethan Hawke. While all this IS there-the film itself ends up just being scary enough. The main problem with the film is that it veers off into stupid, ridiculous territory all too often. Another problem with the film is that it goes on for way too long-but I will get into detail on both of those later.
The film stars the always good Ethan Hawke in what his actually one of his better performances. He plays Ellison Oswalt-a much maligned true to life crime novelist who, along with his wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance) and his kids Trevor and Ashley (Michael Hall D'Addario and Clare Foley) move to a house where multiple murders took place. As most have seen in the trailer-a creature named Bagul has something to do with every one of these and Ellison is dedicated to finding out what.
The film runs 110 minutes and it did not need to be anywhere close to that long. It runs out of steam at the 90 minute mark when it shows something significant. From then on-it feels as if the film is trying to take easy street too much. Despite an ending I will give the filmmakers props for-it feels as if the film tries to cover up its cliches by slightly tweaking them. For example-the character of Professor Jonas (Vincent D'Onofrio in an uncredited role) is the cliche of the all knowing person who informs the person investigating the horror story of why this is happening. However-they try to cover this cliche up by making him a guy who SHOULD be all knowing about the stuff that is going on. Another example is the starstruck Deputy (James Ransone) who is still the Deputy but is given a bigger role in the film than most of these types of characters.
The film also is too dumb and ludicrous for its own good. Once the big reveal comes-the narrative becomes completely stupid while the rest of the film feels too hellbent on "gotcha" moments that are truly stupid. The "gotcha" moments I am referring to are the moments where they make you think one thing is going to happen but another thing happens instead. These moments also prevent the film from having a truly cohesive story line. Rather-it is a good story that never quite reaches its full potential.
Sinister is not terrible. In fact-I would give it a mild recommendation. However, I hated sitting there and watching a film that could have been great be just borderline good. It is scary in bits and spurts but when it comes down to it-the film is kind of a sitting duck for much of it. I would recommend seeing the film if you really want to or can find a cheap movie theater somewhere. Otherwise-wait until next Halloween.
(3 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for disturbing violent images and some terror)
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