Sinister (2012)

After suffering through the boring crap that was House at the End of the Street a couple weeks ago, I mentioned in my review that horror should be the easiest film genre at which to succeed. All you need is something scary. Nothing else is required, yet so many movies struggle to deliver on this fairly minimal task. Sinister does not have such a problem. It follows the tried and true formula of haunted house movies that has been used to death through the years, but that is unavoidable. There are only so many frightening situations you can put a character into. In this film, Ethan Hawke stars as a true crime author who has moved his family into a house where the previous family was hung from a tree in the backyard. Everyone, that is, except for a little girl who has disappeared. Guess where she’ll show up again.

While unpacking, Hawke finds a box of old film reels, which he screens. They each contain footage of various murders, none of which are related save for the brief appearances of a very sinister-looking figure. This is when increasingly strange things begin to happen, and the movie becomes the expected haunted house ride. What I found so refreshing about it, though, is its pacing. Writer and director Scott Derrickson lets the story unravel in a more controlled and satisfying way than most movies of the type. We all know, more or less, where the traditional “jump scares” are going to be, and when they do show up, they are no surprise. What’s surprising is how late in the game they are used. Sinister has the good common sense to know that jumps may be scary in the moment, but a disturbing atmosphere is more long-lasting. The scariest part of the movie is not when the evil being first shows up, but for how long we are made to wait for it. Any smart movie-goer knows that the building of tension is scarier than the outcome, and this movie builds so much tension that the horrors they lead up to are a relief.

This is the most well-done suspense film of the year, and fans of the genre would be foolish to miss it. My complaints are minor compared to the praise. Most of the film takes place in the dark, which is understandable, but there are many instances where it doesn’t make sense for the characters to not just turn on the light. It would have saved them a lot of trauma. Also, the ending, of all things, is anti-climactically hurried, and much less powerful than it could have been as a result. Regardless, it does nothing against the impact of the rest of the film. I admire Derrickson and his good taste in making this picture. It presents things that should be horrifying as they are and does so without being cheap or gimmicky and with no exploitation of anything or anybody. It is an old-fashioned terrifying fun that you will remember far longer than the other rubbish of this Saw-inspired generation.

8/10