Sinister

[MouthForWar]

Figured I'd start a thread for this since I saw it last weekend. Here's what I had to say about it in the Halloween and recently watched threads:

An above average haunted house movie. It avoids a lot of the normal cliches (ie we're given a reason why they won't move out of the house) and offers some interesting angles on the genre. Its basically the movie that would tell you about the dude that finds the footage to all those found footage movies. Pretty clever stuff, although there were some directorial choices that bothered me (jump scares, showing a wee bit too much of the ghost, the ghost looking like a member of Slipknot, etc). But all in all, a really solid flick. The dialogue is smart and the acting is great (Ethan Hawke was fantastic). Also, all the Super 8 film that Hawke's character sifts through is truly chilling stuff... stuff that nightmares are made of, honestly.

Its VERY Stephen King-y, so if you're a King fan, you'll probably dig it a lot.

For a modern ghost film, its exceptionally well done and unlike most modern haunted house movies, they give you real motivations for the characters and make them likable. And I can't stress how good Ethan Hawke was in this film... he was really acting his ass off. It felt good to see a good horror movie in theaters this time of year again... don't know when the hell I did that last.

Although the movie does fall back on a few of the ghost genre cliches, it isn't nearly as hackneyed and generic as the trailers would lead you to believe. I recommend it. If you want to see a horror movie in the theaters this October, this is your best bet as I have no doubt in my mind that it will easily trump Paranormal Activity 4 (more of the same) and Silent Hill 2 (which looks awful). So if you want something that's decent and not another hogwash sequel, this is a good bet.

[DannyBeane]

[MouthForWar]