An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free posts
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2012’s Sinister
True crime author Ellison Oswalt moves his family to a new home in order to help him write his next big break. After finding a box of super 8mm film that depicts horrific murders linked to the crime he is writing about, Ellison gets dragged into a possible supernatural mystery putting his family in danger.
UPDATE: We reviewed/explained 2015’s Sinister 2! You can read our review/explanation by clicking here. Hint: It’s not good.
Quick Review:
If 240p is bad resolution quality and 16K is the best quality than this movie is the quality of good nightmares. That analogy works.
Is Sinister Scary?
I’m still looking behind me every so often to make sure I’m alone. Sinister is 100% terrifying. There are multiple jump scares but each are done right by setting up a suspenseful environment and making sense to the story. The music and use of super 8mm film immediately unsettle you before anything scary has happened.
If you’re looking to be terrified on Halloween this is the movie you need to watch with all the lights off.
Detailed Plot:
The movie starts with an unsettling scene from a super 8mm film showing a family of four, we’re later told this is the Stevenson family, being hanged with no explanation or warning. The title card then pops up, so we’re hitting the floor running.
We meet the main family of the movie led by true crime author, Ellison Oswalt (played by Ethan Hawke), who are in the middle of moving into a new home. By the way, if anyone introduces themselves as Ellison Oswalt, we all know he’s a writer.
Ellison attempts to get his daughter, Ashley (played by Clare Foley), who has a hobby of painting on walls, to help with the move but she refuses.
Here we learn they only moved to the new house because Ellison is writing a new book involving a murder that happened in the area.
They are visited by the Sheriff (played by Fred Thompson) who is not happy with Ellison as he feels he’ll just bring unwanted attention to the case. There’s also the little detail that Ellison’s books often paint the police investigating the crimes as incompetent, despite not attempting to.
It’s hinted at, but not shown to us directly, until a little later but Ellison has moved into the home where the murders at the start of the movie occurred. Importantly, he didn’t tell his wife Tracy (played by Juliet Rylance).
On his way back into the house Tracy asks him to please not tell her they just moved into a house near a crime scene again. Since they moved into the actual house and not a nearby one, Ellison confidently promises they didn’t. LOOPHOLE!
Ellison then takes some boxes up to the attic where he finds a scorpion and kills it. Next to it he finds a box with some super 8mm reels going back decades, titled Pool Party ‘66, BBQ ‘79, Lawn Work ‘86, Sleepy Time ‘98, and Family Hanging Out ‘11.
Later that night we learn just how important the book is to get right for Ellison and the pressure it has put on the family. He and Tracy wonder if Ellison’s 15 minutes of fame are up as his last hit book came out 10 years prior entitled Kentucky Blood and each book after that appears to have flopped.
She tells him she can’t keep moving around and if this new book goes sour she’ll take the kids to move in with her sisters. Ellison agrees that would be fair and leaves to work on his book.
We learn the Stevenson family, who were hanged at the start of the movie, had a daughter who is now missing and Ellison aims to find out what happened, not just to the family, but to the missing child, Stephanie.
Looking through pictures of the crime scene, he finds one of the attic the day the murder took place. He notices the box of film he found earlier isn’t in the picture, meaning it appeared after the murders but before they moved in while the home was empty.
He decides to play the films, starting Family Hanging Out ‘11, and is shaken when it transitions from a happy family outing to the portion we saw at the start of the film. The main questions being who filmed the murders and where was Stephanie when the murders happened.
Ellison then plays another film entitled BBQ ‘79 that starts with a different family camping and then transitions to them bound and gagged in a car while the car is lit on fire by an unseen killer. The score accompanying these films are what truly makes them creepy and unsettling, it just works so well.
Realizing he’s watching footage of crimes taking place that police have not seen, Ellison calls police but hangs up upon looking at his books and realizing the scoop he has found. Pride cometh before the fall and all that.
Ellison starts another film but hears creaking coming from the home, he searches the rooms, clearly on edge after watching the movies. Walking down the hall he spots a box and stops when the box flaps open up and hands pop out.
But this is revealed to be his son, who suffers from sleepwalking and night terrors screaming at the top of his lungs.
The following morning after Tracy takes the kids to school, Ellison plays the next reel, Pool Party ‘66, which opens with a family at the pool then shifts to them tied onto lounge chairs and dropped into the water. In the water of the pool, Ellison spots a figure appearing to be wearing a mask.
Attempting to get a better look, the film ignites on fire and Ellison works on recording the film to be able to digitally view and edit without the risk of permanently damaging the originals.
He’s interrupted when Tracy returns home with Trevor, who was sent home from school for drawing a tree with four hanging bodies on a whiteboard with a permanent marker. The permanent marker thing is what really must have pissed people off.
That night Ellison watches another of the films, Sleepy Time ‘98, involving an unseen killer murdering a family by slitting their throats including one kid. Noticing a strange symbol drawn on one of the walls, he screenshots and prints it out for research later.
Going through the film again he sees a banner that points him to St. Louis being the possible location of the murders. Searching the year on the film reel with the details of the crime, he discovers the family actually had two kids with one missing after the murders.
While reading about the case, Ellison hears a creak coming from above then moments later, the power goes out in the home. Investigating, there’s a loud thump causing him to grab a knife from the kitchen to bring with him up to the attic.
There he finds a snake hiding under the cover of the shoe box he found the films in. He then sees the inside of the cover has drawings of all the murders along with a figure labeled as “Mr. Boogie” appearing in all scenes.
Investigating another sound he falls through the attic and gets knocked out. We then cut to an injury on his leg being wrapped up and the Deputy (played by James Ransone) arriving to investigate the sounds, though he concludes the sounds were probably squirrels…
The deputy reveals he’s a huge fan and asks for an autograph leading the two to enter Ellison’s office where the Deputy offers his assistance for a shout-out in the next book. The Deputy apparently doesn’t have a name besides being called Deputy So & So, so I’ll just call him Deputy CR short for “Comedic Relief”.
Seeing an opportunity for more information on the murders from the reels, Ellison asks Deputy CR to research some more details on the St. Louis murders and the fire burning. He lies to him telling him he doesn’t believe the cases are connected, and that he’s simply just doing more research.
That night Ellison is watching old tapes of himself in interviews from when he released Kentucky Blood, the man on the tapes more interested in justice than being famous, a far departure of who he is today.
This re-ignites his will to solve the crimes and figure out who “Mr. Boogie” is. Reviewing the tapes from Family Hanging Out ‘11 he finds Mr. Boogie hiding in the grass just behind the hanging family. Next, reviewing the tapes from the car fire in BBQ ‘79, he finds the reflection of Mr. Boogie, cementing a connection between all the murders.
Deputy CR gives Ellison a call back on some information he’s found on the murders. He found out the family burning in the car was the Martinez family from Sacramento, California with the murders occurring in 1979, alarmingly they also had a child who is now missing.
CR gives him the address of where the St. Louis murders in Sleepy Time ‘98 happened and Ellison immediately hangs up realizing the Stevenson family from Family Hanging Out ‘11 lived in the St. Louis home just before they moved and were murdered.
While Ellison is reviewing the addresses the face on his monitor of Mr. Boogie moves but returns to normal before Ellison sees this.
Ellison then has the inclination to review footage from the attic of his fall and sees ghostly hands pulling him down. He freaks out and closes the laptop.
That night while sleeping, Ellison is awoken by the sound of the super 8mm projector turning on and goes to investigate. Entering his office he sees the movies playing but there’s no signs of anyone having been in the room.
He realizes the screenshots of the bush where Mr. Boogie was hiding in Family Hanging Out ‘11 is visible from his office window. Getting a better look there’s a quick jump scare where Mr. Boogie appears in the bushes watching Ellison but then vanishes.
Ellison grabs a bat and heads outside to investigate finding Trevor hiding in bushes, sleepwalking again. He carries him inside and then returns outside to get the flashlight and bat but is met with a seemingly rabid dog. The dog appears to snarl at Ellison but in reality, is growling at the ghostly children standing behind him whom Ellison doesn’t see.
The ghost children disappear and the dog runs away. Ellison walks back to a waiting Tracy and they begin to argue over Ellison obsessing over the book and Trevor’s worsening sleepwalking. She asks him to drop the book, not caring about the money or fame but it’s clear that is the only thing on Ellison’s mind. He’s then able to convince Tracy to give him more time.
The next day Deputy CR comes to the house and gives Ellison a toxicology report from the previous murders but he reveals he can tell the crimes are connected. Turns out Deputy CR is a bit smarter than he lets on. He tells Ellison he’ll keep it a secret but he has to be kept in the loop as he also wants to catch the killer.
Ellison agrees to show him everything.
The two brainstorm in his office and come to believe that Mr. Boogie is a serial ritualistic murderer who first drugs his victims, tie them up before killing them, and kidnaps one of the children. After seeing the strange symbol Deputy CR refers Ellison to Professor Jonas at the local university who specializes in the occult, meanwhile, the Deputy will look into the first murders from Pool Party ‘66.
That night Ellison watches the final film reel, Lawn Work ‘86 starting off with the family being recorded by an unseen figure outside their home. The movie cuts to someone using a lawnmower at night.
In the biggest jump scare of the movie, the lawnmower runs over and kills the tied-up family as a loud guttural scream is heard. Luckily the film cuts away to Ellison losing his shit so we don’t see people getting flayed alive.
Ellison gets a video call from Professor Jonas (played by the always-awesome Vincent D’Onofrio). Jonas tells him he immediately recognized the symbol as one from an ancient obscure Pagan deity from Babylonian times named Bughuul, The Eater of Children (official title).
According to the stories, he feeds on the souls of children by first luring them or tricking them into his world using different tactics each time. Anyone worshipping Bughuul, The Eater of Children would most likely include a blood sacrifice or would eat the children.
That night Ellison is once again woken up by the film reel playing on its own. Turning it off, he searches through the house with a bat not seeing the ghost children following him.
Returning back to his office the film reel is back on and he runs to check on the children to ensure it’s not them. He glances into their rooms seeing both asleep but as he leaves, the camera pans around to reveal one of the ghost children with Ashley.
Ellison locks all the doors in the house and falls asleep on the couch. The next morning he calls Deputy CR and asks him about the Stevensons, hoping to find out if they’ve ever complained about strange happenings or if anyone noticed anything odd in the house, besides the whole murder thing.
Deputy CR tells him no but realizes Tracy doesn’t know about them currently living in the house where the Stevensons were murdered. Deputy CR tells him he believes he is just freaking out due to all the stress and secrets but wholeheartedly believes the house could be haunted.
Later in the day, Tracy calls Ellison over to yell at Ashley because she painted on the walls in the hallway. Earlier it was established Ashely could paint on the walls of only her room and nowhere else.
Ellison rushes over and discovers the painting is of the missing Stephanie on a tire swing. To make matters worse Ashley tells them the only reason she painted it outside of her room was that Stephanie didn’t want it in her room as that used to be her brother’s room.
When Tracy asks who Stephanie is, Ashley reveals she used to live in the house and is the one Ellison is writing the book about. So the cat is out of the murder bag. Tracy sends Ashley to her room and then starts to argue with Ellison.
This scene with Ellison trying to justify keeping the murder a secret is pretty funny, in his attempts to use wording loopholes to make it seem less of an offense.
The two continue arguing with Ellison believing the situation is not as bad as it seems since they were broke and he just needs to write this one book to provide and create a legacy.
Tracy believes he can do other things to provide for the family, saying his kids are his legacy, and living in a safe home without a tragic past where the town doesn’t hate them is all they need or want.
That night Ellison is once again awoken by a projector sound (rule of three) and heads over to investigate but finds the projector missing. He realizes the sounds are coming from the attic and heads up finding ghost children watching the films and Bughuul, The Eater of Children pops up in a jump scare.
Ellison falls from the ladder, screaming, and watches as the film reels and projector fall from the attic on their own. He then grabs all of it and heads outside to burn it all in the fire pit.
Tracy goes outside to see what the hell Ellison is doing. He tells her she was right, he made a mistake, and they have to leave the house now. He tells her to grab the kids and pack the car, adding they never should have come here.
They quickly grab the kids, pack as much as they can, and start driving to their previous home, speeding down the road. The Sheriff pulls them over and Ellison tells him he won’t be writing a book anymore causing the satisfied Sheriff to let him off with a warning.
A few days later now at their old home, the family is getting settled in when Ellison receives a call from Deputy CR but he ignores it and is then seen erasing his whiteboard on the case, showing how much he wants to forget about it all. Later on, he gets an email from Professor Jonas regarding images of Bughuul, The Eater of Children, and he decides to video call him.
Professor Jonas tells him there aren’t a lot of images or paintings since the early Christians destroyed almost all of them believing Bughuul, The Eater of Children, lived in the images and was actually a gateway to his realm. Some believed he could possess the viewer or bring them into the images at will with children being especially vulnerable.
This causes Ellison to panic as he has been watching the videos and seeing images but hopes having burned it all means the gateway is closed. He hangs up with the Professor, ignores another call from Deputy CR, and heads to the attic to put away the rest of his research for good.
Reaching the attic he’s shocked to find the box of film reels completely intact and an envelope entitled “Extended Cut Endings”.
Ellison matches and adds the extended cuts to the original reels while drinking a cup of coffee brought to him by his daughter. While setting up the reel he finally answers a call from Deputy CR who tells him he figured out the connection, each family lived in the house where the previous murder took place then moved to a new house where they were killed.
The Martinez family from BBQ ‘79 lived in the house where the Pool Party ‘66 murders occurred then moved to Sacramento where they were killed. The De Luzio family lived in the Martinez home before moving to Orange County in ‘86 where they were killed. The Millers lived in the De Luzio home until ‘98 when they moved to St. Louis and were killed and so on.
This means having just moved out of the home where the Stevensons were murdered has just made Ellison and his family the next to die. Ellison thanks him and hangs up. He then turns on and watches the extended cut clips revealing the killers in all the previous films were the missing children from each family.
Ellison begins to sweat profusely, becoming lightheaded. Looking into his cup he sees a green liquid at the bottom and he falls to the ground. Ashley appears telling him she prefers the longer versions of the movies, Ellison then loses consciousness.
He wakes up bound and gagged along with Tracy and Trevor. Ashley comes into the room filming with an 8mm camera and an axe in her hand. She tells him, “Don’t worry daddy, I’ll make you famous again.” She then murders the entire family.
We next see Ashley drawing the murder on the cover of the shoebox for the film reels.
The movie ends with Bughuul, The Eater of Children, appearing behind Ashley, picking her up, and carrying her into the playing film. It’s then shown the film is called House Painting ‘12.
Review
Sinister hits all the right notes for a Halloween movie, it’s spooky, terrifying, and has a great story. Ethan Hawke and the rest of the cast are great and the movie itself is well-paced.
Anyone watching, without any previous knowledge, will believe there really is a serial killer and no supernatural element to the movie until the halfway point, yet the story lays out the crumbs so it all makes sense when it’s revealed.
The movie sets up jump scares really well creating a suspenseful environment first but not all jump scares really work in the overall story. The jump scares involving Trevor seem to only exist for the scare and not the story, in fact halfway through Trevor seems to disappear until the end.
Still, the movie is great and any horror fan should give it a viewing.
We also recently reviewed Sinister 2! You can read our explanation/review here. Hint: It’s not as good.
Cast IMBD