Movie Appraisal: Sinister (2012)

Well, I'm not sleeping tonight.

Sinister is a terrifyingly horrific movie brought to us from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious. Now, I enjoyed both of those films quite a lot, finding both all kinds of horrifying. I mean, seriously, both are incredible movies, with twists and turns and scares galore. And this one is great as well. It never disappoints, upping the horror with every subsequent scene. I mean, the characters are never brilliant, but in a movie like this it's all about the story, the visuals, the sounds, and the directing. All of those things are topnotch. Scott Derrickson does an amazing job throughout, making this an incredibly directed horror film. The Super 8 footage as well as the long scenes without any real sounds made this movie surrealistic and creepy beyond belief.

Yes, obviously this film was marketed as being terrifying. Yes, as a followup to Insidious I expected a lot. The thing is, the movie delivered. It had an unexpected and brilliant ending. It had a great performance by Ethan Hawke. It had some actually creepy performances by children, which almost never happens. Now, the visuals are not always scary, but if you can get yourself really into the movie, that's where it becomes absolutely terrifying. Just imagining a world where things like this can happen is enough to give one the shakes. And the ambiguous nature of the whole thing makes the movie that much more mysterious and awful to think about. The idea of the film is almost more terrifying than the actual execution. And the execution is plenty terrifying on its own. I wish every horror movie could reach this level of horror. If that were the case horror would be seen as a legitimate form of art in film in no time flat.

Ugh, now I just want more. I want to see more of this horror, more of the terror induced by this movie. I'm a junkie for scares, and this movie delivered enough of them to make me crave more. Seriously, there is a ton of quality here. Sure, there are some missteps and mistakes, but for the most part this movie is the real deal. It is pure horror, derived from a terrifying place in the human soul. It reaches out and creates a feeling of paranoia and real fear. It's after midnight now. I have work in the morning. But I'm not going to sleep anytime soon. If I do, I'm almost certain that every creak from my old house will remind me that anything could happen in this crazy world. If I try to sleep I can just imagine closing my eyes and hearing a whisper at the edge of my ear... or closing my eyes and seeing something staring back at me in the abyss of my eyelids.

The movie was creepy. It followed around a burned out true crime author trying to find his big break. He (and his family) moves into the home of some victims of a fairly grisly murder involving the whole family being hanged except for one of their children who happened to be abducted (or so it seems). Well, he finds some old and creepy home movies showing multiple different murders. All of them seemed to be tied to some Pagan deity or demon and a cult. All of the murders are more closely linked than that though, and the author may have made his biggest mistake in moving into the home of murder victims...

I'm just going to trail off there. He did make a huge mistake. It's a mistake that costs him much more than his life. Well, Ethan Hawke (playing the author) gives us a character we can both relate to and kind of hate. He's a big jerk throughout most of the movie. He lies. He drinks. He shouts a bit. He's annoying and unhappy and a bit apathetic. He seems to care much more about fame and fortune than about the well-being of his family. But he is passionate about a few things. He really wants to figure out the mystery of what happened to the murdered family. He does too- figure it out, I mean- but a little too late, I should think. You kind of feel bad for him at the end of the movie, but you also realize that he's not the only one who figured most of this stuff out. And at least one person knows most of the story, even if it is pretty unbelievable. It's still scary, and the ending still leaves a shiver crawling down my spine, but it's not a movie where the ending is something I absolutely hate. It makes sense and works, even if some might think it invalidates the entire movie. I don't, but I can see some people absolutely hating the ending.

The best parts of the film hands down are the sounds and music. I have to mention those things because they are nearly pitch-perfect. I have never seen a film use sound and music so effectively in its horror. That being said, the visuals never quite stand up them. I kind of wish it looked more- I don't know- horrific? Scary looking? New technology, which is used throughout the film, just simply is not a scary thing. And the bright colors and crisp picture of the non-Super 8 film just kind of shows that a clear and crisp picture does not really beget horror in the best way possible. I mean, there are some films that benefit from a beautiful picture and quality of film. Sinister is not one of those films. It's still good- very good- don't get me wrong, but it could have been better if it were made in a time when everything didn't have to look all shiny and perfect.

For example, sometimes the images of the "antagonist" just looked photoshopped in. And that just seems kind of lazy and awful to me. It doesn't ruin the movie, and it may just be my perception, but I didn't like that. The antagonist- Bughuul- is absolutely unnecessary. The children zombie-ghosts are also absolutely unnecessary. None of them are scary. None of them add any real terror to the film. The scariest parts of the movie are the unknowns things: the Super 8 videos, the ambiguous murders, and having no real reason to do the murders. The children in the "extended endings" of the videos are also brilliant. But showing everything is not brilliant. It takes away from both the premise and the mystery, and it leaves me wishing to excise the elements of the movie I didn't enjoy. But I'm nitpicking. Most of the film is incredibly good, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to any and all fans of horror.

This movie is scary. Did I mention that? I need to mention that again if I did before. Watching it alone late at night is asking to be creeped out and paranoid. It does have some moments of silliness and ridiculousness, but those are far outweighed by the moments of terror. Again, watch this if you want a scare. Yes, there will be moments where you will roll your eyes, but the quality of the horror far outweighs the awful little moments. So, if you enjoyed Insidious, The Blair Witch Project, or Paranormal Activity- or if you just like interesting horror- check this out. It's good in my opinion. It definitely brought the terror and paranoia with it. Check it out if you get the chance. I mean, come on- occult, murder, mystery, crime, and terror? How can you even go wrong?

Movie Appraisal: Insidious (2011)

I went into this film thinking I would dislike it like crazy. It's a PG-13 rated horror movie, and none of those seem to be any good at all. The tend to be watered down garbage without any real promise of terror. But this movie... this movie delivered in the most unexpected way. Not only is this a pretty stellar independent horror film, it works on almost every level. Sure, there are some laughably funny moments that are not intended to be funny, and the CGI is sometimes a bit of a mess, but this movie really delivers as both a good movie and a creepy one.

I'm not used to saying that. I mean, it's not as though this flick scared my pants off or anything. Honestly I wasn't really all that scared at all, but it had some great little ideas and it had such creepy moments that it kept me watching. This is definitely a movie I will be watching again and again. While a slow-paced movie, it works very well at bringing the tension and being, for all intent purposes, basically a non-found footage Paranormal Activity, which is a amusing because the director of that movie, Oren Peli, produced this one, and his influence can be seen all over the place. What surprised me the most is that the director of the film, James Wan, is best known for the first Saw movie (which is of a franchise that I do not enjoy), but is also known for the pretty good movie Dead Silence, which I thought had some great direction to it, even if it's bogged down by other things. James Wan has some incredibly good direction in this film, and it is apparent that he is a master of the craft of horror movies. I mean, his shots are superb, evoking all kinds of terrifying images within the viewers' heads. Leigh Whannel (who also plays a large acting roll in the movie) wrote the script, and the dude knows his stuff as well, creating a really horrific movie from beginning to end. They both have worked together before for Saw and Dead Silence, and they seem to work with and off one another very well in general.

I've seen some people criticize the second half of this film, saying that the ball was dropped or that the second half doesn't live up to the first half. Now, while I don't agree with that statement, I can see where it comes from. The second half rolls with a plot premise that many people may not like. It's kind of a Paranormal Activity type of plot twist that really isn't for everybody. I really thought that this plot point was brought forward well and was really effective. But I also have always had a vested interest in the paranormal (whether I believe it or not) and astral projection has always been of special interest to me. The second half may not be as unnerving as the first half, but it really delivers in stellar imagery and an utterly terrifying premise. I know many might not agree with me there, but I found it incredibly effective.

Now, of course there are moments which are not as effective horror-wise. The ending is very predictable. I mean, really really predictable. And if they hadn't gone in that direction I would have been utterly disappointed. But that doesn't mean it wasn't incredibly predictable. I liked it well enough, but would have hated the alternatives, so I guess that's a plus all the way around. The zombie-ghosts were a little too amusing for my taste and the fight scene between ghost-skeleton man and Patrick Wilson's character of Josh is downright silly. The jump scares are kooky for the most part and do not work on any level. I would have preferred subtler scares all around, much like the earlier parts of the film... but on the other hand I can definitely see why the decision was made to make the latter half of the film more "traditionally" scary. They needed to up the tension and create something scarier for everybody, not just me. While it didn't do much for me in general, I suspect a lot of people would enjoy the later scares. And I enjoyed the latter half of the movie anyway... just not as much as maybe I would have otherwise.

The best part of the movie by far was when Josh enters the astral plane and deals with all of the nonsense there. The dreamlike quality of this part as well as the fog and horrific faces he sees are something out of some deep nightmares. I love the lack of explanation as to what's going on. It works really well and I found the whole thing unsettling and deeply awesome. I was also glad- and I almost hate to say this, but I was glad so I will say it- that Rose Byrne wasn't screaming her head off and going into the astral plane with her bra and panties or something else. While I am a straight hot-blooded American male, I hate when horror movies feel that they need to show "sexy" half-naked ladies fighting demons or whatever. I find it insipid and insulting to myself as a far of horror. There are times for naked characters in movies. It is not when that movie is trying to be scary. So, I liked how Patrick Wilson took the reigns and how neither him or Rose Byrne, both good actors and attractive people, took their clothes off or posed for the camera. They seemed like regular people and that worked incredibly well for me. Lin Shaye had the real breakout performance for me though, being the psychic lady of this film, Elise, who knows everything and is basically pretty awesome. Her two investigators were also really well done, with one played by the writer of the film and the other by Angus Sampson. All the parts flowed together and worked quite nicely, even the children of the film, although, thankfully, there was little of them to see. The picture up there of the little boy on the cover art is basically a misrepresentation of the film, again something I am thankful for because LITTLE CHILDREN ARE NOT SCARY!!! So, instead the horror comes wholly from things that could be pretty creepy, none of which are little children.

While the ending is predictable, the story is incredibly well done. It flows nicely, is cleanly edited, and has effective scenes and scares. The dreamlike quality of parts of the film as well as the dark imagery really works wonders for this story as well. Also, just as an aside there are parts of this movie that remind me of a much better done Drag Me to Hell. I have to point that out. While I liked the Sam Raimi flick, it wasn't very memorable, with more ridiculousness than scary moments. This movie seems to have scenes that are similar to that other film, but played straight and effectively, which I really liked. The acting is solid, the sounds are solid, the scares are well done, not neutered as I thought it might be. There is very little to complain about here and a lot to like. I have to recommend this movie to anybody who likes horror. It's a very good watch.