Are you brave enough to see Sinister?

This was also published in my College's blog!

This movie is not for the faint of heart, it’s made several people become nocturnal days after seeing it. Sinister is the most appropriate movie title for this chilling film. If you look past the obviously edited-for-the-sake-of-the-plot shots, it’s a visually graphic and intense movie from the very beginning that can get anyone either ready for Halloween or sleeping with all the lights on.

The Movie is centered on a True-Crime Novelist Ellison, (played by Ethan Hawke) who makes the brilliant decision to move his family to a house where a family was brutally murdered in months before. Things of course start to get strange when Hawke’s Character finds old super-8 films that are labeled as innocent home movies, like “Hangin’ out”, “BBQ” and “House painting ‘12”. Spoiler alert, every home movie shown is a movie of how the previous family was murdered. While watching the movies he discovers a couple of strange symbols in the films and a demonic figure along with them. As the movie goes on, the symbols turn out to be a part of a pagan spirit named Bughuul, who eats children’s souls. As Hawke’s character finds out more about the demon, his kids begin to act strange, particularly his daughter.

If it wasn’t obvious before, this movie does NOT have a happy ending. In terms of the immense graphic violence and having an intense fear of silence during scenes when it’s just an 8mm projector and the audience, this is one of the movies that really stick to your mind long after you leave the theatre. It came in third place opening weekend with 18 million, behind Argo and Taken 2.

There were a few Horror movie clichés here and there that took away from the plot throughout the movie. Moving to a haunted house, the main character being unfazed by all the grim crimes and details of the deaths of the families, and of course the paranormal entities having some sort of interaction with innocent children, just to name a few. Nothing popped up in the middle of darkness, but complete silence had movie goers squirming in their seats as they anticipated the face of Bughuul to show, which will be etched into the memories of the audiences forever. The ending and beginning of the movie is similar, except the “home movie” shown makes the audience believe that they will be BugHuul’s next victims. Everyone is urged to either stock up on nightlights or RedBulls to avoid being next, even in the comfort of your nightmares.