Movie: Sinister
Rating:

Listen. I have reviewed quite a few trailers for indie horror movies over the last couple of months. Collectively, these movies have taught me one thing and one thing only. No matter how tempting the market seems right now for buyers – if you purchase a house, someone or something is going to try to kill you in it.

Sinister is an indie horror movie due out this Halloween. It’s about a family that moves into a house 9 months after the previous family was found murdered there. Ethan Hawke is the father of the family – a writer who hopes the new digs will give him the creativity he needs to write the best book ever.  Early in the trailer, he tells his wife (Juliet Rylance), “This is going to be really good for us.” And just like that, boom, his horror-movie-fate is sealed.  NEVER EVER SAY THIS IN A NEW HOUSE. It’s just as bad as “I’ll be right back.”

One day, Ethan Hawke finds some old movies in the attic from the previous owner. Here is where it starts to snowball. He discovers the house is haunted by a demon spirit that devours the souls of children, the murdered family’s ghosts start haunting the house and in general, things just get weird. Vincent D’Onofrio is there as the smarty-pants professor who knows all about the demon and wants to help Ethan Hawke save his family from the previous owners’ fate (terrifying death).

Sinister is equal parts The Ring, The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror and it looks absolutely scary as hell. It’s been kicking all kinds of ass at the indie movie festivals this year – which is pretty high praise. If it can take a plot that is by all means contrived and turn it into something people rave about – it is probably worth your time. Unless you have a husband who is too afraid to see scary movies, in which case you’ll have to settle for reviewing the movie trailer.