Sinister Review

This. movie. scared. me. Something about Sinister got in my head and twisted everything. That’s saying a lot. I’m a life-long horror fan but I pretty much stopped expecting the genre to be scary.

It gets kinda old watching a movie or reading a book that’s supposed to be scary but it’s not. I expected Sinister to be good but it turned out to be like the best horror movie I’d seen since The Women in Black. Actually, it might be better.

This is my favorite type of horror movie. You know me, I can do gore but I prefer atmospheric horror. I’d take two faces in the mirror when you’re home alone over watching someone’s guts getting hacked out. Sinister had both except the gore was off screen which is a better way to do it.

Implied gore is worse than the actual thing. I’m not squeamish and I don’t scare easily but I cringed at some points and even closed my eyes. Sinister is part snuff film- not exaclty my favorite type of film- but the way this movie did it was so disturbing. Sinister wouldn’t be as scary if that element was taken out.

At its bases, the movie is about an author who moved his family to a house in almost the middle of nowhere to write what he hopes is his next bestseller. Countless haunted house movies have started this way. You’d think this plot was worn out but it’s not.

If I had the opportuity to escape to a large house in the middle of nowhere to write, I’d do it. Wouldn’t need to think about it. I’d risk it even if I knew about the house’s gruemone past. I’m a horror fan after all.


Sinister was an interesting twist to the haunted house tale though. I tried predicitng what would happen next but was wrong every time. It had funny moments too but they didn’t take away from the frightening atmosphere.

I was feeling pretty meh on Saturday when I saw this movie. My assignment at the NYPL ended Friday before last and my temp agency hadn’t gotten back to me about another assignment. I’m job hunting…again so, I was in a terrible mood all last week. But, I left the movie, Saturday, feeling much lighter. See, the power of a good story. The tale doesn’t have to be all pink unicorns and bunnies. It just needs to suck you in.

Saw a poster for this movie. I had to find the trailer.

I’m definitely behind on my horror news.

5 thoughts on “Sinister Review

  1. Thanks for resuming your movie blog. Your comments on new releases always helped me to decide if they were worth seeing.

    Thanks!

  2. I have to go see this movie!

    It had been years since I watched any horror or thriller movie. However, two or three weeks ago, my husband and I got drawn into the movie "Shutter Island" and now I'm stuck on scary movies again. 🙂

  3. Excellent review, Auden!

    I haven't seen this one, but it's good to know the gore is implied rather than shown all out.

  4. Thanks for the review. I might see this one out of curiousity because I can't imagine a movie that would scare you. If it scares you, it would really scare me though.

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