Sinister (film)

Sinister
Official movie poster
Directed by	Scott Derrickson
Written by	C. Robert Cargill
Produced by	Jason Blum
Starring	Ethan Hawke Juliet Rylance Fred Thompson James Ransone Clare Foley Michael Hall D'Addario
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release dates	March 11, 2012 (2012-03-11) (SXSW) October 12, 2012 (2012-10-12) (United States)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Sinister is a 2012 supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. The film follows true-crime writer Ellison (Ethan Hawke) as he discovers a box of home movies that put his family in danger. The film does not employ "footage" or any traditional cinematography.^[1] Sinister is set to premiere in the United Kingdom at the London FrightFest and in Spain at the Sitges Film Festival.^[2][3]

The film opens on Super 8 footage where a family of four are standing under a tree with bags over their heads and nooses around their necks. The family is lifted by their necks and strangled until they are dead.

Months later, true-crime novelist Ellison Osborne (Ethan Hawke) moves into the same house as the murdered family with his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), and their two children Ashley (Clare Foley) and Trevor (Michael Hall D'Addario). Ellison uses the murders as the basis for his new book. Supposedly, there were five members in the family, and one of the children went missing after the murders.

Ellison finds a box in the attic, which contains a projector and several reels of Super 8 footage. He watches the films, all depicting families murdered in various ways, including having their throats slit and being drowned in their pool. The drowning one proves especially disturbing for him, as he sees a dark figure with a demonic face. Upon seeing this figure, strange things begin happening around the house. Ellison continues to observe the films, and discovers strange things in them, such as a strange symbol painted near the murders, and the demonic figure, which begins to show up in every film. He calls a deputy (James Ransone) to help him find the location of these murders.

After going through the images, the deputy refers him to a religion/cult college professor, Jonas (Vincent D'Onofrio), to decipher the symbol in the films. Jonas tells Ellison that the symbol is that of a Pagan deity named Bagul, who was known as an eater of children's souls. One night, Ellison hears the film projector running and goes up to the attic. He finds five children (all of whom were the missing from each family after they were murdered) watching one of the films. When Bagul suddenly appears in front of him, Ellison falls from the attic. Having had enough, he burns the projector and the film and moves out with his family. Upon returning to their old house, he goes into the attic and finds the box containing the projector and film, completely unharmed. However, there is a new item inside: an envelope with "extended endings." Within that, Ellison finds that after each murder took place, the missing child would come onscreen, revealing them to be the murderers, and then disappear.

Professor Jonas tells Ellison that Bagul would supposedly appear in images, which acted as portals between his realm and the mortal realm. The deputy explains to Ellison that he discovered a chain in the murders. Each of the families that were murdered lived in a house where a murder took place before they moved to another house where the next murder would happen and so on. After learning that Ellison and his family moved, the deputy tells him that he's only continuing the chain. Ellison suddenly finds glowing green liquid inside his coffee and loses consciousness.

Upon waking, he finds himself and his wife bound and gagged. Ashley walks in, carrying an axe and a Super 8 camera. She then documents the grisly murders of her father, mother, and brother, and paints the walls in their blood. She then goes to the projector and plays the film she just took, revealing the children in the hallway. Upon Bagul's appearance, the children run away. Bagul picks up Ashley and walks into the film with her.

The final shot shows the box of film in the attic of the Osborne house, this time with a new canister that reads "Family Painting '12."

A brief post-credits scene shows Bagul dancing upon Professor Jonas' grave. Bagul looks at the camera and shouts "You just got 'Bagul'ed!'" Cut to black.

• Ethan Hawke as Ellison
• Juliet Rylance as Tracy
• Clare Foley as Ashley
• Michael Hall D'Addario as Trevor
• Fred Thompson as Sheriff
• James Ransone as Deputy
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Professor Jonas

Shooting for Sinister began in fall of 2011,^[4] with Ethan Hawke and Juliet Rylance signing on to star in the film.

Early reviews for Sinister have been positive,^[5] with Variety praising the movie as "the sort of tale that would paralyze kids' psyches".^[6] Film.com stated that Sinister was a "deeply frightening horror film that takes its obligation to alarm very seriously".^[7]

As of September 26, 2012, the film has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 15 reviews. Criticisms are minor: CraveOnline called the film "solid" but remarked that the film "doesn’t quite go to the next level that gets me like an Insidious",^[8] and IGN praised the film's story while criticizing some of Sinister's "scream-out-loud moments" as lazy.^[9]

• Sinister at IMDb
• Sinister at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sinister at Metacritic