Plot: True crime writer Ellison moves into a new house with his family and discovers disturbing videos in his attic.
When the movie Sinister was released in 2012, it was an instant box office hit and received positive reviews from both the audience and critics.
It was in 2020, that a study showed audience members had a spiked heart rate when watching the movie.
So is the movie really all that scary?
Yes. Yes, it is.
It can also be slightly disturbing as well but thankfully we are spared from the gore by the focus being on the actor's reaction.
The movie is truly well made and deserves its name on the top scariest Horror movies of all time.
SINISTER Plot
scariest
The movie begins with a clip from a Super 8 film of a family with sacks on their heads, hands tied behind their backs and nooses around their necks. Grim music plays before the family of four is lifted off their feet and they are hung.
In the next scene, we meet Ellison, a true crime writer who is moving into a new house with his wife Tracy, son Trevor, and daughter Ashley.
The kids are clearly bummed out about moving while Tracy is nervous about her husband's work since he has a propensity to move near houses where murders have taken place.
There are two cops who are watching the scene unfold. The sheriff isn't a fan of Ellison's work and advises him to leave this town. The deputy, however, is a huge fan and is starstruck.
Ellison walks away and Tracy asks him how close they are to the crime scene this time. Ellison assures her that they are definitely not two houses away from it.
He looks at the tree in the backyard and we realize it is the very same tree from the first scene.
Oh no, Ellison, what did you do!
Ashley is moping about losing her friends because of the move but her father assures her they will go back once his new book becomes a bestseller like his first one Kentucky Blood.
Ashley extracts a promise from him that they will leave this house soon and in return she promises that she will paint only on her bedroom walls.
Neither one of them keeps their promises.
Dinner is takeout food because Tracy explains they have to cut down on expenses. Ellison once again promises his family that he is going to make it big.
Later, while Tracy and the kids go off to bed, Ellison sets up his office and then while going to the attic, finds a box of Super 8 footage reels and a projector. Curious, he picks it up only to see a scorpion. He smashes the scorpion with the box.
He then takes the box to his office where he studies the crime scene photos and notices that the photo of the attic shows that it is empty.
He works on his crime scene board and it turns out the family from the first scene is missing a daughter. He makes a question mark against her name.
He decides to watch the footage that has innocent labels. FAMILY HANGING OUT.
Ellison prepares himself to watch a family movie only to find himself staring at the footage of the family being hung. He winces but then notices the girl who went missing isn't present in the footage.
Ellison checks out another reel and this one is about a family sleeping before their throats are slit. Ellison is clearly disturbed. He may write about True Crime but he definitely wasn't ready to watch an actual murder take place.
Another footage shows a family trapped in a car that is lit on fire. Another shows someone riding a lawn mower over the family.
And there is one which shows a family tied to pool chairs and then pulled into the pool.
This time, Ellison notices the reflection of a man with a grotesque face.
While all this is going on, Trevor decides to scare the whole family and us as he wriggles out of a cardboard box and screams.
Tracy blames the move for the return of Trevor's night terrors.
Later, she extracts a promise from Ellison that he would have to keep his office door locked so that the kids wouldn't have a negative impact should they chance upon some grisly crime scene photos.
She also gives Ellison an ultimatum. Should he not become famous after this book, she will leave him and take the kids with her. Ellison is unbothered. He is certain the book is going to be a success. But to ensure it, he enlists the star struck Deputy's help and calls him Deputy So and So.
That is because the deputy uses that term when he meets Ellison and asks for an autographed book. He mentions how Ellison always thanks deputy so and so in his books and so ge would like to assist as well just so he could get a special mention.
Ellison doesn’t let him near his work board but does ask him to find out about the murders her witnessed on the reels without telling the deputy about the reels.
In the meantime, Ellison tries to capture the grotesque man only for the reel to burn. He manages to retrieve some footage on his computer and prints out the photo only for the man to show up in his backyard. In a blink of an eye, he is gone.
Ellison tries to investigate the disappearance of the girl not realizing that his daughter has already met her and painting her. Ashley has also painted the hanging family right next to her bed but no one in the family has diacovered it yet
It is when Ashley paints the girl in the passageway that the parents grow concerned. Ellison, especially, since he identifies the girl as the one who went missing.
The deputy visits Ellison and remarks he is not as dumb as not to realize that the crimes he was told to investigate off the record have a connection. He states that each of the murders had one thing in common, one of the kids from the family went missing.
Ellison admits to the crimes having a connection and the deputy gives him the reference of an occult specialist, Professor Jonas who can help him.
Ellison meets with the professor online who thinks the murders appear to be more of a ritual. He asks for some time to do some research.
Meanwhile, Ellison has encountered a snake and dog too, and continues to lie to his wife about the house until one day she confronts him about it. Turns out the kids at school have teased Trevor about living in a murder house.
Ellison defends himself and asks for more time.
But later that night, he hears noises and goes up to the attic to see all the kids who had gone missing, sitting and watching a movie. They place a finger on their lips. That is when the man Ellison had seen, comes out from the screen and at him.
Ellison freaks out and takes the reels and projector and burns them on his grill. He makes sure the reels burn before him.
He then wakes up Tracy and tells her they are all leaving this very instant.
In the middle of the night, the family leaves town only for them to be stopped by a sheriff who asks them if they were bullied. He tells them no and that he is simply taking the sheriff's former advice.
The sheriff tells him to go and that he can speed up once he is on the highway so he can be someone else's problem.
How SINISTER Ends
Ellison and his family are back home and everyone is happy. The deputy keeps calling but Ellison is done with his life in that town.
He goes up to his attic one night and sees the box of reels. He is shocked, and even more so when he sees there is an extended cut to those movies.
He watches them and to his horror, discovers that all the missing kids were responsible for their family murders.
From Professor Jonas, he learns that the animals he encountered in his house had been symbolic. The man he saw in the footage, and the symbols, they all belonged to an entity called the Bughuul who possesses children and makes them commit murders.
Ellison finally picks up the Deputy's call who informs him the murders took place in a pattern. When one family was killed and another moved into the house, they would encounter the entity and then when they moved, they murdered.
Ellison feels lightheaded and checks his coffee mug to see a luminous greenish liquid.
He reads the note beside it that says Good Night Daddy. From Ashley.
He loses consciousness.
When he awakens, he is tied up and on the floor. Ashley comes ove to him with an axe and tells him she is going to make him famous.
The scene cuts away before we are made to witness what is going on.
Ashley then walks down the hallway, blood splattered on the walls. She has killed her brother and mother as well.
She goes to watch the movie and sees the missing kids. They run away scared when they see something behind her. It is Bughuul.
The Bughuul carries Ashley and walks into the movie.
Later we see the movie of Ashley and her family labeled as House Painting.
The movie ends.
SINISTER is one of those movies that when you even think about you will feel an uneasiness in the pit of your stomach.
Even when you rewatch it, you will not be able to escape the fear it invokes.
A well-made film that should definitely nit be rebooted years from now.
Scare Scale: 4.5/5
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