Taglines: Once you see him, nothing can save you.
The film opens with Super 8 footage depicting a family of four standing beneath a tree with hoods over their heads and nooses around their necks. An unseen figure saws through a limb acting as a counterweight, causing them all to be hanged.
Months later, washed-up true crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves into the murdered family’s home with his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), and their two children Ashley (Clare Foley)– a gifted artist who is allowed to paint on her walls– and Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario), who begins re-experiencing bizarre night terrors upon moving into the home. Only Ellison is aware that the house they are moving into was the crime scene. Ellison intends to use the murders as the basis for his new book, and hopes that his research will turn up the fate of the family’s fifth member, a little girl named Stephanie who disappeared following the murders.
Ellison finds a box in the attic, which contains a projector and several reels of Standard 8 mm footage that are each labeled as if innocent home movies. Watching the films, Ellison discovers that they are snuff movies depicting families being murdered in various ways, including having their throats slit in bed (Sleepy Time ’98), being burnt to death in a car (BBQ ’79), being drowned in their pool (Pool Party ’66), being run over by a lawn mower (Lawn Work ’86) and the hanging that opened the movie (Family Hanging Out ’11).
The drowning film proves especially disturbing for Ellison after he notices a demonic figure watching the drownings from the bottom of the pool before turning to look at the camera. Ellison eventually finds the figure observing the murders in each of the films, along with a strange painted symbol; inspecting the underside of the lid of the box containing the films, Ellison discovers numerous crude drawings depicting the murders, along with crude drawings of the demonic figure, identified as “Mr. Boogie.”
Consulting a local deputy (James Ransone), Ellison discovers that the murders depicted in the films took place at different times, beginning in the 1960s, and in different cities across the country. He also learns that the families were all drugged before being killed; and that a child from each family went missing following every murder. The deputy refers Ellison to a local professor, Jonas (Vincent D’Onofrio), whose expertise is the occult and demonic phenomena, to decipher the symbol in the films. Jonas tells Ellison that the symbols are that of a pagan deity named Bughuul, who would kill entire families so that he could take their children into his realm and consume their souls.
One night, Ellison hears the film projector running and goes up to the attic. There, he finds the missing children in various states of decay, watching one of the films. Bughuul suddenly appears on camera before physically appearing before Ellison. Ellison takes the camera and the films to the backyard and burns them. Then he wakes his family to tell them that they are moving back to their old house.
At his old home, Ellison receives a message from Professor Jonas, who sends him scans of historical drawings associated with Bughuul; each had been partially destroyed because ancient cultures believed that Bughuul lived within the images, and that they acted as portals between his realm and the mortal world. Ellison then discovers the projector and films in his attic, along with a new envelope of film labeled “extended endings.” During this time, the deputy tries calling several times, but Ellison never answers.
Sinister is a 2012 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Scott Derrickson. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson, and Vincent D’Onofrio. The plot revolves around fictional true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt, whose discovery in the attic of his new house of a box of home movies depicting grisly murders puts his family in danger.
Sinister was inspired by a nightmare that co-writer C. Robert Cargill had after watching The Ring (2002). Principal photography began in Autumn of 2011 on Long Island, with a production budget of $3 million. To add the authenticity of old home movies and snuff films, the Super 8 segments were shot on actual Super 8 cameras and film stock. The film was a co-production between the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The film premiered at the SXSW festival. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2012, and in the UK on October 5, 2012. Sinister received positive reviews, praising the acting, direction, music, cinematography, and atmosphere, but received some criticism for its use of jump scares and horror cliches. The film was a box office success, grossing $87.7 million against its budget of $3 million. The film’s financial success spawned a sequel, Sinister 2, released in the United States on August 21, 2015.
Sinister (2012)
Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Dalton Thompson, Clare Foley, Tavis Smiley, Janet Zappala, Victoria Leigh, Cameron Ocasio, Danielle Kotch, Blake Mizrahi, Nicholas King
Screenplay by: Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
Production Design by: David Brisbin
Cinematography by: Christopher Norr
Film Editing by: Frédéric Thoraval
Costume Design by: Abby O’Sullivan
Art Direction by: John El Manahi
Music by: Christopher Young
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent images and some terror.
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate Films
Release Date: October 12, 2012
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