Sinister (2012) Dir: Scott Derrickson

Ridley Coote
May 26
2 min read

Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKHjtS9tVPg/?igsh=OXoyMW1vNXJhanY2

This supernatural horror film by director Scott Derrickson is one I originally watched a good while ago now, but decided to revisit. Partly, this was to see if, and how, my views have changed towards it, and partly because I wanted to watch the sequel afterwards - just to see what it was like. I remember thinking this was a solid enough horror film, but tastes change.

I found this more atmospheric than scary, to be honest, although I will admit that one of the jumpscares did make me jump a little bit. The supposedly creepy children weren't scary at all, and it was abundantly clear that they were wearing makeup, and were not in fact dead kids. It was just hard to suspend my disbelief when they looked so artificial.

I liked the mix of typical horror and mystery elements in the story. It kind of felt like a crime thriller at various points, which I definitely enjoyed. However, the film lost momentum several times across its runtime, which ultimately meant that it dragged a fair bit. The climax also got a bit loose, which made it feel unfocused. The story also just didn't go as far as it felt like it was going to, which was a little deflating.

Ethan Hawke carried this film on his shoulders for just about the whole of its runtime. His acting pedigree was very apparent compared to the rest of the cast, which is not to disparage them per-se, but instead to emphasise the good job done by Hawke. This is particularly worth mentioning because of how decidedly average the screenplay was. Hawke elevated the film a lot.

I wanted to like Juliet Rylance a lot more than I ended up doing. Unfortunately, her acting just didn't quite do it for me. There was a slightly forced manner in which she approached some scenes that really didn't work. Her aside, there were a couple of others worth mentioning, mostly for positive reasons; Clare Foley and Michael Hall D'Addario did alright as the two protagonist's children, while Vincent D'Onofrio, James Ransone, and Fred Thompson provided a set of watchable, if not breathtaking performances.

Overall, this was a fairly solid horror film, though not quite as good as I remembered it being. Despite this, it was still pretty watchable, and maintained a decent amount of suspense, albeit without ever really being a scary film. Nothing about it really blew me away, in any regard, but it was certainly brought up in quality thanks to its tenured and reliable lead actor. I wasn't put off watching the sequel either, which must count for something.