Sinister

Today’s much anticipated launch of the new Scott Derrickson creation really does raise the question of what it is about watching a film on the edge of our seats that keeps us coming back for another slice of the $10.4billion horror film industry cake. Billed all too often as the next Paranormal Activity, Sinister centres unsurprisingly around an ordinary family who have moved to an isolated old house yet what I found refreshing is its ability to promise all the characteristics of every generic by-product of its genre while simultaneously considering that fine line between ambition and greed.

'There’s just an absolute simplicity to 

the idea that I think really just works’

                                                                                                                  ETHAN HAWKE

Yes we have the cheesy setting, the perfect all-American nuclear family, the exasperating tendency for the protagonist to wander around looking for danger in the dark while leaving all doors and windows unlocked but underneath that is something genuine - a substance, you might say, which shines through beautifully. This is quite possibly because of the perfectly chosen and mixed music and sound effects which don’t just substitute but remove the need for expensively created footage and, some would argue, for visuals all together. As the film’s star, Ethan Hawke points out,

‘There’s just an absolute simplicity to the idea that I think really just works’ and it is ultimately this which I think lifts Sinister beyond what it tries so hard to be. It is a real shame that, possibly because of the inevitable comparison which audiences will make between this and other recent films considered to follow a similar path, a desperation for this film to appeal to a mass-market lingers in the air when in fact I’m sure I’d be one of many to concur that it is strong enough to do so of its own merit meaning there is no need for the patronising cheese.

Simplistic it may be, following in the footsteps of predecessors such as Exam or Brake which use a lack of budget to their advantage, focusing instead on the undergoing of a journey and finding themselves better films for it, hence it would be a mistake to confuse simplicity for predictability. As with all films you try to work out what will happen but in this case I would strongly advise thinking laterally when doing so. It is rare that I finish anything, whether it be a film, book, song or another form of entertainment, consciously making an effort to begin thinking in a different way but I believe the right mindset can benefit massively from Sinister. It works on a verity of levels, managing at once to be tediously familiar and entirely different so, despite its faults, which I would in all fairness attribute to today’s film industry rather than the film’s creators, I would certainly recommend it to anyone who finds when going to the cinema that half their popcorn seems to have vanished before the trailers have ended as you will be jumping out of your seat on numerous occasions. Sinister comes to UK cinemas today, October the 5th.