Sinister (2012)
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Sinister Movie Review
Sinister is a 2012 horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Ethan Hawke. It is a weak film that has its strengths, but is mostly boring.
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“Don’t worry, Daddy.
I’ll make you famous again“
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Yes, the major takeaway from this film is the word boring. For a horror film, I was surprisingly bored out of my mind as the movie is very slowly paced and actually rather uneventful. Yes, I do realize that it explores authors, their writing process, their darker side and all that jazz. But the movie is not another ‘Shining’, not even close.
It is entirely lacking in major horror sequences as you only get a couple of them here and they are not worth all that wait for them. I do admit that sometimes its investigative, mystery, supernatural thriller approach worked as some scenes are mysterious, atmospheric and intriguing. But for the most part, the film consists of too many conversations, build up and not enough payoff.
Ethan Hawke is by far the biggest reason to see Sinister as he is so good here. It was weird seeing him in a film like this, but he nonetheless acquainted himself with the material and the role so well that he really nailed the protagonist and his feelings. This is one great performance in a movie that doesn’t deserve him. All of the rest are forgettable, either as characters or as actors, and the film needed at least someone else who can be compared to the main character.
Scott Derrickson directed one of my favorite superhero films ‘Doctor Strange’ and I saw none of that talent or imagination here. Sinister is surprisingly devoid of memorable imagery for the most part and only a couple of scenes are somewhat striking, but not all that much.
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The movie can be engaging in its dialogue in some scenes and it definitely is emotional, but again not scary or creepy whatsoever and it was mostly badly paced, most definitely overlong and problematically written. I was thus disappointed as I saw some evident potential here.
Sinister has an interesting mystery approach to it, it has some memorable scenes and Ethan Hawke excelled in the main role, but the movie is mostly quite boring, it entirely fails to scare or creep out and is also not particularly well made or sophisticated enough to pass as artistic, intelligent horror.
