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Review by Ken King |
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USA Release: Oct. 12, 2012 Blumhouse Productions, Possessed Pictures, Automatik Entertainment, IM Global, Summit Entertainment, Alliance Films Rating: USA: R |
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"Don't worry, Daddy. I'll make you famous again."
- Ashley Oswalt
Before I really get too far here, I want to mention the incredible job composer, Christopher Young (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE, HELLRAISER, HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2, THE FLY II, SPECIES, URBAN LEGEND, THE GIFT, THE CORE, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, SPIDER-MAN 3, THE UNINVITED, DRAG ME TO HELL) did on the music for SINISTER.
It reminds me a lot of the score that was done for one of my Top 10 Horror Films of All Time, HEREDITARY. Great job, Mr. Young. As always, your efforts are appreciated. You set the exact tone that this movie needed, and it came out to be one fine Horror flick.
Director Scott Derrickson (HELLRAISER: INFERNO, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL [2008], DELIVER US FROM EVIL, DOCTOR STRANGE, THE BLACK PHONE) also deserves a round of applause. Directors of his ilk are the future of the Horror biz, in my honest opinion.
Derrickson knows all the ins and outs of what makes a great Horror film. SINISTER , while not in my Top 10 Horror Films, is most assuredly in the Top 20.
TRIVIA I would really love to know what his falling out with Marvel was all about where he was relieved of his directorial duties and replaced by Sam Raimi, on DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.* Usually, when a director leaves because of "creative differences" it's because the studios weren't budging on something the director wanted to do and they didn't want to be associated with. *Maybe: Scott really wanted Namor, who is Doctor Strange's ally in the comic books. He was given Executive Producer status for agreeing to do the sequel so he keeps his Executive Producer credit after his work adapting, writing, directing, and overall creating the wildly successful DOCTOR STRANGE (2016). As a movie composer, Christopher Young has worked in many genres but none as often as Horror Thriller. In addition to his linked credits, he composed the soundtracks for, |
So, we have True Crime author, Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke: ALIVE, GATTACA, SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, HAMLET, TAKING LIVES, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, DAYBREAKERS, THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH, THE PURGE, GETAWAY, PREDESTINATION, GOOD KILL, REGRESSION, FIRST REFORMED, 24 HOURS TO LIVE, VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS, REGRESSION), who moves into a house where a heinous crime was committed some years before.
The home held a family of five, but one of the daughters, Stephanie (Victoria Leigh: UNFORGETTABLE [TV], SHADOW VAULTS) isn't with the executed familial unit. The crime report said she disappeared and there wasn't a trace of her to be found. Oswalt knew this upon moving in... but his family, wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance: ANIMAL, AMOK, AMERICAN GOTHIC [TV]),
son, Trevor (Michael Hall D'Addario) and
daughter, Ashley (Clare Foley: EVERY SECTRET THING, GOTHAM [TV], THE CHANGED) know jack all about it. They just know the patriarch of the Oswalt family is writing another book after an extended dry spell, and they had to move from where they loved living, so he could be close to the source of what his next book is about.
Oh!
Ellison also conveniently forgot to mention the terrible crime happened right in their back yard. He didn't exactly lie when confronted about it later on, but he wasn't forthcoming with very important details when he forced the family to move to what was realized more and more every day, was decidedly "Hostile Territory."
As moving day is underway, the cops show up and the sheriff (Fred Dalton Thompson: UNHOLY MATRIMONY, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, CAPE FEAR) tells Oswalt he needs to hit the road with his family and not look back. He's not exactly a fan of the writer, though some of his deputies are, but the sheriff himself has no use for the other man.
Ellison thinks he is on the trail to revitalize his career with this new book, so he isn't going anywhere, despite what some hick sheriff has to say about it. Making friends already in their new digs, Oswalt goes up to help the movers and his family get situated in the new residence.
Ellison sees a plain, non-descript box left behind in the attic, presumably, by the last tenants, sitting in the middle of the room. Upon inspection he finds an old film projector and a stack of old Super 8mm film reels with titles like "Hanging Out with the Family," "Family Barbecue," "Pool Party," etc. Like anyone would in this situation, Oswalt sets up a mini-projection room in his office that no one is allowed in, but himself, and starts watching "home movies."
They are all snuff films.
Each one is more bizarre than the last. Each is terrible in their own way. Each takes place in a different time period, from the 1960's, to present day. Besides the executions of the families, they all have another thing in common. In every one, a son or daughter is missing from the terrible deaths.
Ellison pretty much forgets he is writing a book and throws all his time into research and watching the films. He even gets a deputy fan boy, with the unlikely name of Deputy So & So (James Ransone: INSIDE MAN, PROM NIGHT, OLDBOY, SINISTER 2, IT CHAPTER 2, GEMINI, FAMILY BLOOD, WHAT WE FOUND, BLACK PHONE) to help. The officer comes off at times as only a few steps above the ineptitude level of Mayberry's own Barney Fife, but there is more to the man than meets the eye.
It all seems to be what Oswalt is looking for, but then strange occurrences happen with the family: His son, Trevor, starts having night terrors. Daughter, Ashley, has begun to paint, not only on her bedroom wall, as she was allowed to do, but on the walls outside the room, as well. One of the paintings is of the missing girl, Stephanie. Trevor drew a picture of the family of four dangling from a tree at school.
After that, and all the cold stares she has been having around town, Tracy, has had enough, and confronts Ellison about this and his TRUE motives about moving from their former abode.
Ellison has no choice but to come clean.
It does not go well.
Ellison takes the wife and kids and pulls a Jed Clampett and moves the fuck away from there.
A Professor Jonas (Vincent D'Onofrio: ED WOOD, STRANGE DAYS, MEN IN BLACK, THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, THE CELL, IMPOSTOR, THE SALTON SEA, JURASSIC WORLD, PHANTOM BOY, RINGS, GHOST WARS) that Ellison had sent some pictures over to that all had a strange symbol in all the crime scenes, tells the scared shitless author what they are, their origins and how they come into play with what he's studying.
Then... it all comes crashing down for the Oswalt's.
I know what all I have described above seems like the film has been pretty much wrapped up in my description.
It hasn't. Not even close.
This movie is well worth your time and effort to watch. Just throw away any box you suddenly find in your house that has a projector and 8mm movie reels in it. Those are NOT worth your time.
I want to give some more shout outs here to Nick King, the guy who played Bughuul aka Mr. Boogie. That dude was creepy as all get out. He made my skin crawl every time he was on screen.
Also, mad props to cinematographer, Christopher Norr (THEY CALL HIM SASQUATCH, WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU, GOTHAM [TV], BELIEVE [TV], ROB THE MOB). This movie was beautiful. The outside being mostly sunny in the daytime even had a menacing air about it and the inside of the house was always dark. The overall ambience of the film was off the charts. This was, one of the best uses of lighting I have seen in a film in a very long time. Usually, a production blows it in one area or another. Not with SINISTER. Everything was perfect and on point. As a fan, I was totally blown away by this attention to even the smallest detail.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We can all say we would have jetted out of that house the second we saw that movie reel with the family left hanging high and dry.
Yeah. Right. If there's anything I know about human nature and it's that there is an unspoken but hardwired trait in most of our collective psyches called CURIOSITY. Following on the heels of that is another old belief, almost superstitious in nature that states, "It won't happen to me!"
We humans are a curious bunch and those foibles rarely go hand in hand with longevity.
Five Shriek Girls
This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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