Sinister - A Horror Review

There’s nothing more satisfying to watch before Halloween than a horror flick with someone you can cling to. And if you can score a prescreen pass then you’re already ahead of the game.

Sinister opens tamely enough with the foreshadowing of what’s to come and is expertly unraveled for viewers. Ellison (Ethan Hawke) is a crime writer who thinks it’s an excellent idea to move his family not just to the town of a bizarre murder and kidnapping years ago, but to actually move them into the murder house. While settling in, he discovers a box labeled “Home Movies” and what’s a writer to do when he realizes he has stumbled upon super 8’s of the murder of the previous owners but many others as well? He keeps it to himself as key info to his writing. 

He eventually discovers that in each home movie, there’s a presence, lovingly named “Mr. Boogie” or as he later is told is a lesser pagan deity called “Bagul”. Bagul is an eater of children’s souls and lures them into his world. Obviously, this deity is horrid looking and will conjure up all our childhood fears and has the uncanny ability to always appear from the side.

Sinister had us wondering what was going on for a long time and that is quite rare in a horror film. Through use of light and lack of light, director Scott Derrickson creates an intense, grip the edge of your seat scenes that somehow gets into your head. The only problem were the oddly placed conversations that you can’t help but laugh at, whether it was intentional or not.

Sinister opens in theatres October 12th, grab your sweetie and go see this. And we dare you to sleep alone after.

3 Candymans out of 5 The Exorcists
Images from google