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Sinister

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:37 am
by jonbly
8/10 - effective jump-scare horror. In hindsight, though, the rules by which Mr Boogie plays are kinda artificial.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:38 am
by AdeBrown
Yeah, fancy making things up :-)

Genuinely the first sustained period of goosebumps for me (a couple of the shorts managed a few seconds).
Ethan Hawke should have words with Johnny Depp and all the other mainstream actors who have tried to be spooked out. For a while I believed we were getting a Jack Torrance (from the book, not the Jack Nicholson Show) tale of writer turned mad.
The manner in which that theory was dispelled was quite effective for me.
Spooky children rarely work for me in US films, but these ones did.
And yes, the comedy relief was beautifully positioned.

As we often have to rewrite endings or suggest follow ups in these threads, I'd like to take that Q&A sequel discussion and suggest Wes Craven's New Scream, in which an annoyed horror film fan kills a series of directors to stop them making sequels.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:03 am
by Wolfshade
Absolutely brilliant, this is genuinely the only film I've ever seen at Fright Fest that was genuinely SCARY, made my flesh creep. Great performances by Ethan Hawke and his wife in this, and for once a mainstream film that doesn't go for the nice happy ending.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 11:31 am
by Buffalobill
Loved it. Creepy and suspensful as hell. Bagul was genuinely scary looking, although I didnt care for the ghost kids much. And finally, an interesting Q&A session, the writer was a top bloke.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:06 pm
by mamawaldi
Definitely beat The Possession in the battle of the Hollywood evil spirit movies!

Re: Sinister

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:08 pm
by Wulfster
Yeah. Much better than "The Possession".
Loved the scene with "Mr Boogie" turning towards Hawke on his laptop. Have to turn mine off all the time now!!!

Re: Sinister

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:18 pm
by Alex J
** Spoilers **

Plenty of chills, creepiness and jump scares in this effective tale of a writer obsessed with a missing girl after the rest of her family have been murdered. The mix of serial killing and the supernatural worked well and one of the scariest efforts I have seen all year. Certainly a cut above The Possession. 8.5 / 10

Re: Sinister

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:12 pm
by lupogirl
I was waiting for a supernatural film to give me the creeps and make me jump. This film delivered. Had atmosphere and also the creepy imagery of the hanging family. Superb film!!!!

Re: Sinister

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:26 am
by Marko
Agree with all the comments. Especially the part about Bagul being cool looking while the kids they could have shown less of.

Stands nicely with Indsideous and Woman in Black for creepy haunted house modern day horrors.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:49 pm
by The Soapmaker
I thought it was interesting to compare Sinister with The Possession, two very "mainstream" horror movies dealing with extremely familiar subject matter.

I wasn't expecting much, but Sinister got everything right. It was obvious where the story was going, but it was well structured and well paced, with (hurrah!) a consistent "mythology", internal logic or whatever you want to call it. Good performances, humour which actually worked and didn't seem out of place, well-timed scares.

The Possession, on the other hand, was competently-made but utterly predictable, seen-it-all-before, tedious dross.

Re: Sinister

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:30 pm
by streetrw
Sinister was one of my favourites of the fest this year: genuinely scary and creepy and must-look-away-but-can't-look-away in the best tradition that we simply don't see enough of in horror movies these days. Insidious was probably the last.

http://streetrw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/sinister.html

Re: Sinister

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2024 2:10 pm
by zappa fan
Currently on Netflix, Sky and Now.