A Sinister encounter

The moment November rolls in, I get ready for some serious spooking. I’ve always been a fan of horror films, and I’ve always been a fan of Ethan Hawke, so it was but natural for me to have Sinister on top of my 2012 horror movie viewing list after months of catching it trailer by eerie trailer. So, one Saturday night, I drag my unwitting cousins and siblings to the movie theater. A few minutes into the movie, my terrified brother looked at me and said, “Tell me why we are putting ourselves through this again?”

For me, watching horror films is the closest I can get to getting back on an almost perfectly vertical roller coaster. Or trying out skydiving. The goal is always to stare fear right in the face and, at the end of the journey, be grateful I’m alive. Psychologically speaking, of course, since I’ve never been one to risk life or limb.

 Sinister tells the story of a true-crime writer who may have already had his fifteen minutes of fame and is working obsessively on what could be his next bestseller. Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) has had ten years between him and his first hit. Believing it to be his second shot at fame and fortune, Ellison feels so strongly about his new project that he moves his family to the best place to do research: the actual scene of the crime. Or, as he would reason out to his wife, the house of the family that died outside, in the backyard.

It was no ordinary crime that occurred, though, as we viewers know from the onset. There’s a malignant presence in the house, and it leaves a mysterious box of Super 8 films for Ethan to discover in the attic. Soon, he discovers that these are home movies of a series of murders that occurred in different locations over a span of decades. The movies have some things in common: they all show a family being murdered, and there is always one member, a child, missing.

Obviously, no matter how horrifying, the box of home movies is a virtual goldmine for a writer who specializes in true crime. Imagine breaking that kind of exclusive to the public! The possibilities are too tempting for Ellison to dismiss, so he holds off on informing the police. Slowly, however, it begins to become apparent to him that a supernatural evil force deliberately left the box of home movies for him to find.

Strange things begin to happen in the house. At first, Ellison seems to be the only person affected; soon, however, his children begin to have strange encounters as well. His wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance), who has patiently supported him through his book writing obsessions, demands to know the truth and tells him that maybe what he’s working on is not worth whatever risk they were unwittingly taking.

Was Ellison going to pursue his project whatever the price? No matter the price? The movie’s ending tells us that, sometimes, when you make a decision is as important as what you decide, if not more. Yes, dear Ethan Hawke fans, this one doesn’t have happy ending.

Which brings me back to my terrified brother, who said, as credits rolled, “So, that’s it, huh? Good didn’t even win over evil?” Well, the film is not called Sinister for nothing.

The last two American horror films I saw,  The Possession and Sinister, have endings that didn’t give me the catharsis I seek. Thinking about it now, I realize I’ve never enjoyed horror films in which good doesn’t triumph over evil, because they immediately send me careening towards fears I’d really not confront, the same fears I watch TV and movies to escape.

November’s first horror film, while terrifying in most parts, rates low on my scale. Ethan Hawke better make it up to me in Before Midnight. Now, to switch the channel to The Walking Dead.

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