Sinister – spoiler alert

October 12, 2012
Horror / thriller
R
UNITED STATES
Director: Scott Derrickson

“Shhh …”

Four family members have bags above their heads and knots around their neck. A complex mechanism is put in place to have a pole saw cut a branch, and as the branch falls, the family is lifted in the air, where they hang until their death. This defines the atmosphere for the rest of the film.

Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is a real crime writer who set the subject of his new book: The Stevenson Family who was hanged in their backyard and their missing daughter, Stephanie (Victoria Leigh). He hasn’t had a bestseller since “Kentucky Blood”, and he is determined to change this. Unbeknownst to his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), he moved his own family in the house that Stevenson was once held in a small town in Pennsylvania. Their children, Trevor (Michael Hall of Addario) and Ashley (Clare Foley), are taken for the journey.

As Ellison helps transport boxes in the house, he already finds one in the attic. When he opens it, he sees five movies at home and a projector. Since the house was the scene of a horrible murder, he decides that they are worth watching in case everything is left on them who could give him clues to the missing killer and girl.

The films include the titles: “Family Stranging Out”, “BBQ”, “Pool Party”, “Sleepy Time” and Lawn Work “- all with different years. He decides to look at “Family Sweet Out”, and it starts rather normally: a family enjoying their time together in their courtyard. are and look at “BBQ”.

Over the days and that Ellison is doing more research on murders, Trevor is starting to have night terrors. He had them when he was younger, and his parents thought he was above them, but now they are back and worse than ever. Ellison finds Trevor first in a moving box, then again in certain bushes in the backyard. Tracy, who already has trouble with her husband’s work, finds herself short with him and arguing what their move in this house does to their family. Of course, Ellison did not tell her in which they moved home, but she can feel that something is wrong.

In addition to that, Ellison begins to hear steps in the attic. He decides to take a look and, in doing so, finds a snake under the lid for the home movies box. After a more in-depth inspection of the cover, he notices drawings of the stick-like type of all the murders of the film at home, although they all seem to be drawn by different people. He is surprised by his thoughts when he heard behind him, pointing that the attic door closed. In a panic, he starts again for the door, but falls through the ceiling. The power was out, so he used the flashlight of his phone to see and film at the same time. When he returns to look at the images, he notices several small hands pushing him downwards by falling. It is naturally disturbing for him, but not as much as he sees when he deepens movies at home.

During “Pool Party” where a family is attached to lounge chairs and drowned in his pool, Ellison spots someone (or something) in the water. It vaguely looks like a man, but the characteristics are distorted … or disfigured. He also finds a strange symbol painted on a wall in the house of “sleeping time” just before the family gets split. But there is one thing he sees in “Sleepy Time” which draws his attention: the family lived in Saint-Louis.

The local deputy (James Ransone) is a fan of Ellison, with the chagrin of the sheriff (Fred Thompson), and becomes a useful part to the personal investigation of Ellison. The deputy (who comes to be known as the deputy, thus), plunges into the murders of Saint-Louis, as well as the family who burned to death in their car. What he finds is that the Stevenson lived in the house of Saint-Louis after this family cut off his throat. Something else that has discovered is that in each family murder, there is a child who disappears.

Ellison is struggling more and more with growing knowledge, as well as Trevor’s night terrors and the sounds he continues to hear in the house. In addition to that, he woke up several times by the sound of the projector that lights up alone, where the film “Family Trawing Out” still plays. To further put it on the edge, other things happen, like a dog presenting himself in his garden and making him.

To help deepen the survey, the deputy suggests to Ellison that he should contact a teacher specializing in ancient tradition. What Professor Jonas (Vincent d’Onofrio) discovers is that the symbol that Ellison has found is a cult of an obscure pagan deity; specifically bugguul. This particular divinity is an eater of children for children and it keeps children from the real world away in a “lower world” where it can consume their soul over time.

The sounds around the house Empire, and while Ellison checks one night, he does not see the ghosts of the missing children run and watch it. Little Ashley does it however. Ashley wants to grow up to become an artist, and she has the right to paint on the walls of her room. Above all, she paints horses, but she is in trouble when Tracy finds a young girl’s painting on a tire swing in the corridor. When asked why she did it, Ashley explains that Stephanie told her that she didn’t want painting in the room anymore, because it was her brother’s room. It is at this moment that Tracy discovers in which house they live. You can imagine how this conversation takes place, although Ellison and Tracy believe that it is the hyperactive imagination of a little girl who heard the stories about the Stevenson rather than a ghost child who speaks to their daughter. However, Tracy begs Ellison to stop, even through his refusals.

Everything changes, however, when Ellison once again hears the projector lights up. He enters his office, but when he sees that the spotlight is not there, he follows the sound in the attic, where he sees him settle and play with ghost children sitting around him. He immediately takes the box with the movies and the projector and burns them, and when Tracy goes to see what he does, he tells him to do things and get the children. They leave.

They return to their old house and everyone seems happy, even with the deputy trying continuously to call and Ellison always ignore him. He installs his laptop in his office and opens his emails to see one from Jonas. He clicks on the file to see photos of strange engravings. Photos he has already seen. Images almost exactly like the murders of the film at home. The video calls Jonas, where the professor explains to him that children who see these particular images are more vulnerable to the influence of Bughuul. Ellison doesn’t think about it much at the start, but the deputy calls them again. This time, Ellison answers, and what the deputy must tell him turns his blood.

The deputy did more excavations in other murders and discovered that each of the killed families had already lived in the house where murder took place. This means that Ellison and his family moved directly into the model of the ritual killer in series.

And that’s not all. While Ellison moved boxes in the attic, he sees another who is very familiar: the one who has films at home. For fear and frustration, it shakes the contents of the box and finds something new. This time, there is a package with “extended cutting endings” which are written there. With his curiosity that takes over him, he plays them, where he finds that the children “missing” are those who committed the murders of their family.

Now he feels sick, but not just discovery. He finds traces of a brilliant green drug in his cup of coffee and vanishes. When he wakes up, he has adhesive tape on his mouth and he is attached. He can see Tracy, which is also linked. Ashley presents herself dragging an ax and tells her father that she “will make him famous again”. Then she lifts a camera and begins filming.

The end Ashley watch drawing on the cover of the box of his own home film, which received the name of “Home Painting”. In the film, we see blood splashed on the walls, with photos including a horse and a dog. Then, Bughuul (Nicholas King) supports it and the door in the projection screen.

There is a lot in this film, I realize, but I wanted to give you a good idea. It is at the top as one of my favorite horror films, because there are so many things. Ghosts, ancient gods, murder, mystery. I want it to end without it showing Bughuul carrying Ashley in the projection screen, because I have the impression that it takes away from the atrocity of what she did. However, it is a great film with its constant frightening atmosphere and its just part of fear of jumps, and I highly recommend it.

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