The New Movie This Week Will Be...

Up this week for my new movie review is another horror movie- Sinister. The freaky flick looks right up my alley, full of jumps and hopefully not too much gore. Check out the preview for yourself.

Sinister follows washed up true-crime writer, Ellison Oswalt, as he drags he family around trying to find his next ticket to fame. Ellison last struck it big more than ten years ago, and for the last decade has put out some books that were less than par. But not this time. Without telling his wife and two kids, Ellison moves the family into the scene of a mass homicide. Not long ago most of the previous family living there was murdered in the backyard, and one  daughter went missing. To most it's a terrible, unsolved crime. To Ellison the tragedy, and the house, are flashing dollar signs in his eyes. That is, until things start to get weird.

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Of course, this is a horror movie set at the scene of a heinous crime, so naturally things are not going to go according to plan. First off, while unpacking, Ellison finds one box presumably left behind by the previous tenants. In the box are what look like home movies. Turns out, they’re really snuff films- of the previous family and several other families before them- all killed in a terrible, gruesome manner. As Ellison investigates the series of murders, he realizes that they are all connected, and now he’s right in the middle of it. 

The film stars mostly little known actors, but is headlined by Ethan Hawke as Ellison. Hawke has not been in anything particularly noteworthy in the last few years, but made an impact in the 90’s and early 2000’s in movies like Training Day and Hamlet. More recently, Hawke starred in the vampire movie Daybreakers.  Hawke has proved he has talent in the past, so I’m excited to see what he does with fresh material. I’m also interested to see how he does in the horror genre. Although Daybreakers can be considered a horror movie (since there are vampires and all) I thought of it as more of a action/horror. Sinister looks to be more a jumpy, demon-y horror. I want to see if Hawke can play into the suspense. 

I’m also interested to see how the younger actors do in the creepy scenes. Hawke’s character has a lovely wife and two children- Trevor and Ashley. Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario) is middle-school aged and a little rebellious. Ashley (Clare Foley) is younger and more innocent, spending her time painting unicorns in her bedroom. I’m always interested to see if child actors can keep up with horror movies. Since many horror movies have story-lines that revolve around terrifying topics, its interesting to see which ones sink or swim. That might sound harsh, but it's a dog eat dog world, and I want to see a good movie. 

Check back in a few days to see whether or not Sinister managed to impress me, or if it took after other recent horror movies that have failed to get under my skin.