Sinister

Sinister is one of my favorite horror films. I was only able to see it twice in theaters, but it was terrific. I was literally shaking in my seat, because of all the wonderfully placed jump scares (my favorite having to do with a lawn mower).

Summary:

Ellison Oswalt is a true-crime writer of the once popular "Kentucky Blood." Looking for fame once again, he moves his family (unbeknownst to them) into a house whose previous owners' bodies (except for one of the daughters from that family) were found hanging by their necks from the tree in the backyard. In the attic of their new house, he finds a box of super 8 'home movies,' revealing the last moments of that family (the previous owners) and several others. Throughout the film, Ellison uncovers the mystery of the missing children and their relation to the unknown figure, who appears in some way in each of the home movies.

Review:

As I wrote above, this is one of my favorite films. Usually, when I watch horror movies, I am a little disappointed in some way. This film, however, was nearly perfect. 

One of the aspects that I enjoyed (which I normally don't notice unless it's really good or really bad) was the music. It was used especially well in the home movies. Since there are no sounds, the music used is both soothing and creepy. One thing that I found really interesting, that I discovered after watching the film, is the possible inspiration from black metal. For those that don't know, black metal is a subgenre of metal music. While watching the film, Until the Light Takes Us, a documentary on the history of black metal music in Norway, I recognized one of the songs that was also in Sinister ("Silence Teaches You How to Sing" by Ulver). I was also struck by how similar Bughuul's (the demon) appearance was to the corpsepaint of black metal bands. I don't know if it was intended by the filmmakers, but I think they might have designed his face to look like a 'natural' version of corpsepaint. 

Another aspect that I enjoyed was the tension/mood throughout the film. It scares you right from the start, with the creepy music and the footage of the family being hanged. The film has several jump scares, which are all effective. So, whenever the film isn't creepy, it's terrifying (with most of the scares happening at night).

The only thing that I was a little disappointed with was the look of Bughuul. His face was scary enough, but I found his body to be 'too human.' At the end, you get to see him clearly and his body looks like a normal human body wearing clothes (white shirt, black trenchcoat, black pants, black shoes). I think it would have looked more demonic if he didn't wear clothes that were so normal. For example, if he wore something old, raggedy, and dirty; or if his body didn't look entirely human.