Sinister

Genre: Horror, Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Rating: 15
​Warnings: Mild Gore,

While the gore is to a minimum, the film starts right off with footage of a murder and includes the main character wathcing footage of murders that include mild gore, child death and suicide-like imagery.

​It's a horror film, so there's no surprise that there are some wildly illogical or obtuse decisions made by everyone. They're human mistakes, though, like naively trying to keep notorious small-town murders hidden from your curious son, or letting a vital piece of evidence catch fire because you don't know anything about super8 film. The main character goes on to make the more anger-inducing terrible decisions like storming out of the house after a presumed serial killer with nothing but a bat, leaving the door wide open. He is drunk, though.

The plot is slow and builds tension expertly, however, and is engaging. A true crime writer, who is admittedly disorganised, alcoholic and very emotionally affected by it, moves his family into a house where a murder has taken place to research and write about it. He finds the killer's home recordings of the murders; more that just the one he's researching. It's not immediately clear if the stress and whiskey are getting to him or if a paranormal entity is stalking him. Masterful use of light and dark give us the horror of unpenetratable shadow that could be hiding something while keeping the action itself well-lit. The jump scares are masterful, giving adrenaline spikes and breaking the tension without being treated as the horror itself. That being said, there are one or two that are scary in themselves.

As well as some amazing jumpscares, there is a beautifully theatrical sequence that would make the film worth watching even if it were bad. Luckily, it isn't bad, its brilliant. Who or what is behind the murders? Is he being stalked by the serial killer or is he sleepwalking and having night terrors like his son? The acting is superb, with believable anger and fear so real you'd be forgiven for fogetting it's fiction. While the marketing for the film plays heavily on the mythos behind the monster, "Mr. Boogie", and the idea that once you see him you're doomed, it doesn't come up in the film until at least four fifths of the way through.

Without spoiling it, the ending has a sense of closing the book on all the foreshadowing that came before. In this way it also turns seemingly aside moments into foreshadowing and answers all the fridge logic questions you hadn't realised you had. The moments that are for the audience only are what gives a lingering feeling of unease, and there is the posibility for a sequence without the obvious bait of a concept-milking series.