Sinister (2012) & Sinister 2 (2015)

Sinister (2012)

I finally sat down to watch what “science” has dubbed as “the scariest film ever made,” and while I wouldn’t necessarily agree that it is, Sinister is a solid gem of a supernatural horror movie even with some of its pacing issues.

I think a huge part of why Sinister raises your pulse rate is the direction by Scott Derrickson. It’s all about shot selection and lighting because to be fair the story gets a bit repetitive in this slow burn mystery. 

Right from the beginning you’re hit with a hanging scene, an entire family is hung from a tree by a seemingly disembodied hangman. It’s soon revealed that Ethan Hawke has moved his family into that very same house while he writes a true crime book about the murders. From the very beginning we’re shown wide shots of the family on one well lit side of the frame while beside them is a lot of empty space and usually a long, dark hallway that immediately unnerves the viewer. These shots are all over the house; the attic, the bedrooms, the second floor hallway, Ethan Hawke’s home office, and even the backyard. Because of the way it’s shot, you’re never in a state of ease so even if nothing is happening, you get a sense that there’s something coming at all times.

The 8mm films Hawke discovers that show the horrible murders are very well done. The silence of the frames with only the sound of the projector running makes everything more eerie and adds to the atmosphere.

The only drawback to the film is its length and how repetitive it is. It seems that Ethan Hawke and his wife are having the same argument over and over and over again. Shaving off a few of those scenes and getting the film down to a 95 minute run time from its 110 would make this a near perfect supernatural horror film.

Sinister 2 (2015)

Sinister 2 is the best Children of the Corn sequel ever made, but watching it immediately after Sinister made it a bit disappointing. While the story was fine, the film lacks the tension of the original, which never relented in making you feel uneasy.

Derrickson and Cargill are back to write the screenplay, which does a commendable job of setting up “Deputy So and So” as a main character and revealing that he’s since left the police behind and is now spending his days trying to break the cycle of the Bughuul curse by burning down the houses where the murders take place so no one else can move into them and keep the curse going. He hits a snag when a mother trying to escape her abusive ex secretly moves into one of the homes illegally with her two young boys. As the kids begin to see the dead children in the house, he realizes that he needs to keep them from moving away from the house to avoid them becoming the next victims of the curse.

With better writing than your average franchise sequel, Sinister 2 lacks in the aforementioned tension and performances of the original film. There are hints that this was meant to have at least another sequel as there are references to the disappearance of “Jonas” (Vincent D’Onofrio’s academic character from the first film) that never lead to anything here. It appears as though Derrickson and Cargill were attempting to set up an Insidious type universe here that just simply never materialized.

Maybe this would have been more likely had Derrickson returned to direct as the Insidious films benefitted from being shepherded by its creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell for the first three films. The drop off in acting, directing, cinematography, and atmosphere harmed this film’s chances from ever attaining anything more than just being a solid sequel.

It has some of the scares of the original, but it has a lot to live up to. That’s not to say this film is bad, but it’s definitely not up to the level of the pulse pounding original.