Still Giving me the Creeps Almost 3 Years Later: Sinister (2012) - Review

"Once you see him, nothing can save you"

When I first saw this movie on its opening week I must admit I had little to no expectations because even though of course I’d heard of him, I'd never actually seen Ethan Hawke in anything (aside from being mentioned in the odd Family Guy skit) and couldn't really picture him in a leading horror role, but MY GOD WAS I WRONG. 

The film opens with a fairly graphic scene of a family of 4 being hanged from a tree in their own garden by an unseen force cutting the branch which held their weight. I think it's safe to say I was sold from that point on, not to say that I was at all prepared for what happened in the rest of the film.

The film centres around the seemingly chipper family of Ellison Oswalt, a failing true crime author trying to follow up his equivalent of a one hit wonder, a literary Right Said Fred if you will. 

After moving into a new house related to the case from his newest crime book, he comes across a conveniently placed box of 8mm "home movies"  in his attic which turn out to be grizzly depictions of seemingly unrelated families being killed in ways that I just...ugh...they make me shudder.  

Hawke’s character, after being told to leave the town by the Sheriff almost immediately after they move in, ends up having to call the police about what he believes to be an intruder, but turned out to be..squirrels in the attic (yeah, yeah...of course…”squirrels” sure). Only to be greeted with the delightfully simple deputy who he affectionately refers to as Deputy So-and-So who just so happens to be quite the fan of his, and is willing to do anything to get some recognition in his next book. Little does he know he’s digging deep into something he really does not wanna know about. 

Sinister definitely does do a good job of amping up the tension early on without making it completely obvious from the offset that something paranormal is really going on. Something some films can't seem to get to grips with. Because for me at least, figuring out a film early on really stops me from getting into it completely because I spend the entire time hoping I'm right and figuring out what's gonna happen next and almost end up zoning out from the film itself.

One thing I really love about this film is that I leaves the true cause of the happenings fairly open ended for a pretty long time. And by open ended I don't mean it doesn't explain anything, but more like it makes it seem like it could go either one of two ways. As if it could go be revealed to be fully demonic and end up as yet another possession movie, or turn out to be more of a slasher/crime thriller type movie.

BUT NO. 

It goes into almost a mixture of the two that in theory, doesn't sound like it'd be too great. But there's enough of a balance between the paranormal ghostly type crap and the violence (I don't really wanna say 'gore', although we do see someone get ran over by a lawnmower which did make me cringe) that it really manages to be tense enough without getting boring, and also scary enough without over doing it. 

I only really have two qualms with this film. Only small, niggling ones, but ones that get in the way enough to make me feel like I have to mention them anyway. 

The first one being the scene where we see Ellison's son Trevor in the midst of what turns out to be a pre existing problem; night terrors. And not some kind of possession like it would have you believe. The night terrors themselves aren't what I have a problem with, more with why he ended up inside a cardboard box, screaming and contorting himself...or why it was in the film at all for that matter. I don’t mean to complain, but I don’t feel like it contributed to the film at all, I just see it as a cheap attempt at a jumpscare in an otherwise pretty quiet film (quiet definitely not being a bad thing in this movie..it works). I just think it detracts from something, what that thing is however, I can't put my finger on. 

The second thing I've never really liked is the overall appearance of Bughuul/Mr. Boogie. I just feel like there was so much more they could've done with this character than making him look like a cross between The Crow and a reject from a Norwegian Black Metal band, I mean, it's been done. I feel like it would've been a lot cooler to see him look a tad more..."animal-like" maybe, instead of essentially just a guy in a cloak. As I know quite a few pagan figures and deities quite often have animalistic features. I dunno man, I just think it would've been awesome to see.

A little too much 1991 Mayhem, not enough Pagan Deity

If you're a fan of Insidious, and at a stretch I guess the Paranormal Activity series as this is a joint effort from creators of the two,and you haven't seen this, theN MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING GO WATCH THIS.

Definitely my favourite film to come out of recent years, and I must admit I'm now completely in love with Ethan Hawke. *.*

Maybe Not Just Another Haunted House Movie...maybe. The Pact (2012) -Review

(I know this isn't the newest of films but for my first proper post I thought it best to keep it short, and also talk about something I'd seen recently and I watched this for the first time yesterday so...)

When another paranormal/haunted house film like this inevitably comes out, although I'd say it's probably my favourite genre, I will probably just switch off because hey, it's all been done before, right?

And at first glance this film essentially follows the formula for a horror flick we've seen verging on too many times now.
1. People return to the family home for one reason or another. (Usually a dead relative)
2. Shit starts going down, but people don't believe each other.
3. All too convenient Google search results.
4. Main character finds out all is not what it seems.
5. Let's call in a psychic!
6. Big ass showdown with whatever this thing is.
7. BUT OMG IT'S NOT OVER OTHERWISE HOW WOULD WE GET A SEQUEL!!1!
Don't get me wrong though, this film does it well.


It's also worth mentioning how long it took me to figure out which sister was which in this film. First we follow Nicole, who by the way I still don't know what happened to as we never really hear much, if anything, from her for the rest of the film. Then we seemingly switch to Annie without a word, and because they look so similar (which is great casting for sisters but puh-lease don't expect me to know who's who when you change without warning!) for me at least, it took like 5-10 minutes for me to realise we weren't following the same person any more.
While, at least at the beginning, this film does definitely play up the typical haunted house "oh my god my kitchen ware is suddenly on the floor and who is that behind you" schtick and a whoooole load of jump scares to boot (and don't say they didn't get you too okay, they're fucking scary!) they're bloody well done. 
What I could never get to grips with this film though is simply the title. 
Unless I'm just that fucking slow and I completely missed something; there was never any actual mentioning of a "pact" between anyone. 
Was it a pact between Annie and Nicole's mother and her brother because she was technically harbouring a murderer in the basement of the family home?
Was it to do with the fact that he killed her friend whilst on a killing spree?
Or was something incestual going on and is Annie's uncle actually her dad?
Or is this a case of something being missed out or misconstrued from the original short film. But personally having never seen the short, I couldn't say. All I know is it feels like there's something missing from an other wise surprisingly underrated film.
Props as well have to go to Caity Lotz (Arrow, The Machine, to name just two) who plays Annie for basically carrying this film alone. The vast majority of The Pact is her alone or having to vibe off only one other person. Having never even heard of her before this film, I'm immensely impressed.
Overall though I would say this film is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the haunted house genre. Or even if you're not actually it's well rounded and tense as fuck.
While this film sounds cliché as all hell on paper, in practice, it's anything but.
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Also I know because this is my first proper review or w/e I'm not gonna get loads of views so yeah, thanks for reading, and if for some crazy reason you wanna see more from me and have a movie you'd want me to talk about just drop a comment :))))))