Review Tuesday: SINISTER / SINISTER 2

SINISTER

2012 

When a true-crime author moves into a house that a previous family was murdered in, strange things start happening to his family.

So many movies use the same titles or similar titles, we had avoided this movie for years thinking that we had already seen it. But nope. We hadn't and Mrs. Baxojayz selected this movie for date-night viewing. 

 

My initial instinct was to NOT like this movie. It revolved greatly around children and I just don't like movies starring children, especially in horror. However, it does star Ethan Hawke as Ellison, as a famous true crime author trying to write his next blockbuster. His method is to delve into the story. He has a history of moving himself and his family into or around the crime scene so he can get the full experience of the location of the crime. Unfortunately it usually ends up with the local folks taking an enormous dislike to him and his family. This is depicted in one of the opening sequences in which the local sheriff welcomes Ellison with a suggestion that they should pack right back up and move out ASAP. Of course Ellison ignored the warning and dug in. While exploring his new home Ellison discovered a super 8 projector with several tins of film with various labels identifying them as what sounded like ordinary family footage. They turned out to be anything but ordinary. 

 

That was the point when Ellison started down a path of paranoia, and his children started acted strange, and his wife turned into a bitch. 

 

The movie is great! Loads of thrill and suspense. Hawke is just amazing to watch and he shows us his descent from skeptic to involuntary believer of the supernatural. The movie, which is close to two hours, keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, right up to the unexpected shocking ending. 

 

See it on AMAZON

More on IMDB 

 

SINISTER 2

2015

After the events of the first movie, Deputy So-And-So tries to prevent future murders from happening. 

After seeing the first movie, and liking it so much I started looking into it. At first I wanted to know if this pagan deity, Bughuul, was the invention of the writers or if he was rooted in something real. The answer to that is no, they spent a good deal of time creating a backstory for that character that might have been based on several other malevolent deities. But while doing my own research I found out pretty quickly that there had been a sequel in 2015. What direction would they go in a second movie? A sequel? Prequel? Okay, I needed to see this!

After the tragedy of the Oswalt family in the first film, Deputy So-And-So (played by James Ransone) decided to find all the homes that Bughuul had previously corrupted and burn them down so that no more families can be visited with his brand of evil and horror. Much to his chagrin, upon arrival at one of the tainted homes, the Deputy learned that a family was living there. In order for Bughuul to claim his next victims, the family has to move OUT of the contaminated house so the bulk of the film was about the Deputy trying to get that family to stay put.

 

We really enjoyed this movie too. Even though the kids and the ex-husband are all loathsome characters, you still didn't want them to meet a violent end. Between the perspectives and the amount of information this movie provided, with more blanks filled in, the movie was really enjoyable, if that's the right word to use for a horror film...

 

The only bummer is that the studio has no plans to make a Sinister 3 at this time due to the lack of performance in ticket sales of this installment.   

See it on AMAZON

More on IMDB