Sometimes, our best ideas can come from very dark places. Many of our greatest novelists, poets, painters, and even composers have found inspiration in their nightmares. One such time, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill went to bed after watching the Horror movie “The Ring.” That night, he had a profoundly disturbing nightmare in which he found a home movie in his attic that depicted a family being hanged in their own back yard. The nightmare became the launching point fora new screenplay. That screenplay would become 2012’s SINISTER.
Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a true-crime writer who is struggling to recreate the success of his first book. He moves his family into a nice little house in Pennsylvania, where, unbeknownst to his wife and children, the grisly, unsolved murder of the previous residents recently took place. As the family moves in, Ellison finds a lone box left behind in the attic. Inside, he finds a film projector and several canisters of Super 8 film labeled as family movies. That night, as he labors in his study with his new book, he decides to take a look at the films to perhaps gain an insight into the family he is researching. What begins as typical, family movies suddenly takes a dark turn as the actual murder – the hanging of the family from a tree in the back yard – is shown in the film. As more connections between it and other murders become clear, it also becomes clear that Ellison’s family could be next.
While a little slow-moving and prone to convention at times, SINISTER boasts an intriguing premise, good acting, and tight writing. C. Robert Cargill’s screenplay is a satisfying mystery as well as being spooky, and Scott Derrickson’s directing is top-notch. Christopher Young’s menacing score hits all the right moments, and John El Manahi’s Art Direction achieves a kind of everyday-gothic, particularly in the home movies. It is in the home movies where SINISTER really elevates itself. The decision to shoot the home movies on actual Super 8 stock and camera was an inspired decision must have been a technical headache. The result, however, is an authenticity that is crucial to the success of the film. Nothing in the film would work if the home movies weren’t convincing. They are, and they are scary as Hell. They propel the film to an amazing climax that is not only frightening, but satisfying in a way that few Horror films allow themselves to be these days.
SINISTER initially received mixed reviews on its release, though few critics could deny that the film was very scary. It was successful enough with audiences to spawn a sequel, and it has gone on to achieve a kind of cult status. Many of the film’s signature “looks” have found their way into the world of Halloween mazes and iconography. SINISTER looks like it may well be on its way to a place in the pantheon of original, terrifying films that find their status long after their initial release – the type of place that will give future screenwriters their nightmares.
SINISTER fun facts – The filmmakers were trying for a PG-13 rating, so this film has little blood and no nudity or swearing. They got an R rating anyway.
In order to get a natural reaction from Ethan Hawke, he was not allowed to see the home movies before shooting. He was filmed reacting to the Super 8 footage in real time.
Ethan Hawke was cast as a writer partly because he is a writer in real life – having penned two novels.
The hanged family in the opening was played by stunt people, but a botched preparation caused them to be hanged for real on the first take. They survived, of course, but the stunt coordinator was fired as a result.
Ellison - “When bad things happen to good people they still need to have their stories told. They deserve that much.”
Deputy So-and-So - “It’s my home, Mr. Oswalt. What happened here, happened to all of us.”
Ashley – “Maybe someday I’ll paint something really good. Then I’ll be famous, like you.”
Sheriff – “Something like this, you can never explain something like this. And if you were able to, the odds are you wouldn’t much care for the answer.”