Sinister

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson

Directed by: Scott Derrikson

Rating: I Liked It

The purpose of any good horror movie is to make you jump and look over your shoulder a little more often than usually when you get home to your dark, empty house.  The job of a good slasher flick is to gross you out and make you cringe at the images it puts in front of you.  This movie accomplished both of those things.  

The Good: 

• I'm not a big fan of Hawke, but I thought he was pretty good in this.  He did a good job of showing the obsession he was facing wash over him.  
• The villain in this film was pretty creepy.  There were a couple of scenes in particular when he was discovered in the background of the movies Ellison (Hawke) was watching that stand out to me.  The look of the villain was good, too.  
• Kids are creepy in my opinion, and this movie did a great job of promoting that.  
• There were lots of good scares that made me jump.  
• Deputy So-and-So was a great character to add into the film.  James Ransone does a great job being overly enthusiastic about meeting Ellison.  
• The movie didn't end quite the way I expected, and that's OK, because I was expecting something more...uh, expected.  

The Bad: 

• There were plenty of horror film cliches, but nothing was too overbearing.  
• I didn't care for the performance from Michael Hall D'Addario as Eillson's son Trevor.  He was just annoying more than anything else.  Thankfully, he didn't appear in too much of the film, and when he did appear, he didn't have a lot of speaking parts.
• I liked Vincent D'Onofrio's quazi-cameo as Professor Jonas.  Ellison contacts him concerning a symbol that continues to show up in the videos he is watching.  I didn't like that his performance was so limited.  

The Ugly: 

• I don't really have anything for this topic.  I'd pretty much recommend going and seeing this one as a good Halloween watch if you get the chance.