Found footage helps a true-crime novelist realize how and why a family was murdered in his new home, though his discoveries put his entire family in the path of a supernatural entity.
Perhaps it explains too much in what is a grisly finale, but this is both skilful and scary; as such, it’s one of the best horrors you will see this year.
Either way, as Ellison delves into the mystery of the films, co-writer/director Scott Derrickson makes an unconvincing attempt to add depth by focusing on Ellison’s marital problems. Alas, he makes an even less convincing attempt to add scares by recycling the best bits of The Ring, Poltergeist and The Exorcist.
There are echoes of The Shining in Scott Derrickson's vision of a writer slowly falling to pieces, and of childish revenants appearing in corridors, though one suspects it might have gripped tighter if the solution had been of this world rather than the other.
Ellison is an annoying prat and there aren’t enough scares or story developments to keep you hooked, though the ending works well.
Its images are chillingly memorable.
There isn't an ounce of ingenuity in the way the movie is concluded, but some generic expertise in the way it is put together.
Sinister does everything right. It’s a refreshing change to see a horror film that visits familiar themes—a haunted house, found footage and ritualistic murders—and puts a new spin on them that’s genuinely terrifying.
There are a number of reminders of Kubrick's The Shining here, none of them resonant.
As well as boasting a three-dimensional hero and some glimmers of humour in among the scares, Sinister has a number of clever touches.
Conventional perhaps, but also creepy and clever in equal measure.
An enjoyable, if boilerplate, boo-flick that maintains an enviable rate of scares per minute by throwing everything – demons, ghosts, snakes, loud noises – at the screen.
Derrickson bounces back from his insipid redo of The Day The Earth Stood Still with an effective chiller that's got a skeleton or two in its closet.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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