Sinister - Review

Sinister
(2012)
Horror | Thriller
120 min.

Rated: R Scary, intense horror film involves kids and murder. What parents should know.
Grade: B-

Director: Scott Derrickson
Writers: Scott Derrickson (screenplay), C. Robert Cargill
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone | See full cast and crew

Sinister is a frightening new thriller from the producer of the Paranormal Activity films and the writer-director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Ethan Hawke plays a true crime novelist who discovers a box of mysterious, disturbing home movies that plunge his family into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror. -- (C) Summit 

Being a fan of Horror films puts you in a bit of a quandary.  To feed the 'scare adrenaline' addiction you will see all the Horror films available but as you do so you become jaded to the scary on screen images and the repetitive formulaic stories all of which makes it harder and harder to frighten you, leaving you feeling disappointed and cheated.

.

Eventually you find yourself watching things you know intellectually are terrifying, even if you don’t find yourself the least bit scared. On top of that Hollywood's major horror offerings are little more than formulaic following cash grabs, Horror film watching soon becomes a thankless endeavor. That being said, every now and then along comes a major release that surprises. It leaves you turning on every light in the house (unlike the people on screen), you don't relish the idea of walking home through the dimly lit, quiet streets alone, or you find yourself peeking through the window at the back seat before getting in the car. Writer/director Scott Derrickson has delivered a creepy little gem pretty much hits the mark. 

Sinister stars Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) as an  exposé writer of true-crime stories. He moves his family, without disclosing to his wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance) or children Trevor (Michael Hall D'Addario) and Ashley (Clare Foley), into a house where a horrific family murder took place. He’s desperately wants to be the author of the next In Cold Blood.  However, strained finances and a failing marriage are driving him to drink and to hear and see things that go bump in the night. He finds a box full of super 8 'Home Movies' in the attic of the house, depicting not only the murders that took place there, but also connected ones in other cities. The grisly images he sees in these films do absolutely nothing to help improve his state of mind. It doesn't take a genius to, early on, see the eventual twist coming, but with the movie being told essentially from Ellison's perspective, the predictability isn't a distraction. Mr. Derrickson creates a goosebumps raising occult thriller that has a significant number of 'made-you-jump' moments that are merely cheap adrenaline rushes in lesser films. Here, though, they are earned through the skillful direction, writing and acting further heightened by Christopher Young’s unnerving soundtrack. It all comes together to  create a truly creepy ambiance.

Plot

Spoiler Alert!

(Via Wikipedia)

The film opens on Super 8 footage where a family of four are standing under a tree with bags over their heads and nooses around their necks. The family is lifted by their necks and strangled until they are dead.

Months later, true-crime novelist Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves into the same house as the murdered family with his wife, Tracy (Juliet Rylance), and their two children Ashley (Clare Foley) and Trevor (Michael Hall D'Addario). Ellison uses the murders as the basis for his new book. Supposedly, there were five members in the family, and one of the children went missing after the murders.

Ellison finds a box in the attic, which contains a projector and several reels of Super 8 footage that are each labeled as if innocent home movies. He watches the films, all depicting families murdered in various ways, including having their throats slit in bed (Sleepy Time), an arson (BBQ), being drowned in their pool (Pool Party), and the hanging that opened the movie (Hanging Out). The drowning one proves especially disturbing for him, as he sees a dark figure with a demonic face. Upon seeing this figure, strange things begin happening around the house. Ellison continues to observe the films, and discovers strange things in them, such as a strange symbol painted near the murders, and the demonic figure, which begins to show up in every film. He calls a deputy (James Ransone) to help him find the location of these murders. After going through the images, the deputy refers him to a religion/cult college professor, Jonas (Vincent D'Onofrio), to decipher the symbol in the films. Jonas tells Ellison that the symbol is that of a Pagan deity named Bagul, who was known as an eater of children's souls. One night, Ellison hears the film projector running and goes up to the attic.

He finds five children (all of whom were the missing from each family after they were murdered) watching one of the films. When Bagul suddenly appears in front of him, Ellison falls from the attic. Having had enough, he burns the projector and the film and moves out with his family. Upon returning to their old house, he goes into the attic and finds the box containing the projector and film, completely unharmed. However, there is a new item inside: an envelope with "extended endings." Within that, Ellison finds that after each murder took place, the missing child would come onscreen, revealing them to be the murderers, and then disappear.

Professor Jonas tells Ellison that Bagul would supposedly appear in images, which acted as portals between his realm and the mortal realm. The deputy explains to Ellison that he discovered a chain in the murders. Each of the families that were murdered lived in a house where a murder took place before they moved to another house where the next murder would happen and so on. After learning that Ellison and his family moved, the deputy tells him that he's only continuing the chain by moving to a different house. Ellison suddenly finds glowing green liquid inside his coffee, along with a note from his daughter, and loses consciousness.

Upon waking, he finds himself, his wife and son bound and gagged. Ashley walks in, carrying an axe and a Super 8 camera. She then documents the grisly murders of her father, mother, and brother, and paints the walls in their blood, with several childish images such as unicorns, cats and dogs . She then goes to the projector and plays the film she just took, revealing the children in the hallway. Upon Bagul's appearance, the children run away. Bagul picks up Ashley and walks into the film with her.

The final shot shows the box of film in the attic of the Oswalt house, this time with a new canister that reads "House painting '12".

Cast

Ethan Hawke         Juliet Rylance

Ellison Oswalt             Tracy Oswalt 

Michael Hall D'Addario     Clare Foley

Trevor Oswalt                     Ashley Oswalt

      James Ransone    Fred Dalton Thompson

Deputy                             Sheriff

People Like Us

People Like Us

(2012)
Dramatic Comedy
1 hf. 54 min.

Rated: PG-13

Rating: C

Director: Alex Kurtzman

Writers: Alex Kurtzman (Cowboys and Aliens, Transformers), 

Roberto Orci, Jody Lambert

Starring: Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D'Addario, Philip Baker Hall, Mark Duplass, Michelle Pfeiffer

Sam is a New York City twenty-something, fast-talking salesman. His latest deal collapses on the day he learns that his father has suddenly died. Against his wishes, Sam is called home, where he must put his father's estate in order and reconnect with his estranged family. In the course of fulfilling his father's last wishes, Sam uncovers a startling secret that turns his entire world upside down: He has a 30-year-old sister Frankie whom he never knew about. As their relationship develops, Sam is forced to rethink everything he thought he knew about this family and re-examine his own life choices in the process.

People Like Us is not about people like us. (Your time might be just as well spent listening to 'People Like Us' by the Mamas and The Papas at least then you can avoid an annoying 11 year old using the 'F' bomb and other likewise cultured speech.) If that sort of thing doesn't deter you, you just might find something interesting in this movie.

People Like Us is a morality tale about forgiveness and personal relationships. Unfortunately it is based on Hollywood morals, of course that in itself is that an oxymoron. They say you can't choose your family but you can choose whether or not you will love them.

It's not so much the problem of the acting, I think they do an adequate job with what they have to work with. It is the writing, the story, that is at fault. All of the characters are flawed (as we all are) but thanks to the moral relativism of Hollywood, no one is responsible for the choices that led them to where they are now. Everyone's an innocent victim and daddy, Jerry (Dean Chekvala), is the boogie-man in the family closet. Yet even he, in the end we are supposed to believe, is a loving father who just happened to have two families. Now, in Hollywood, that's no biggie...but if the story were, for example, about a polygamist family relationship where the family is committed, married and living together that would simply be beyond the pale! In the Hollywood world of elitist superiority, it's perfectly fine to commit all the same 'sins' as the polygamists, just so long as you don't marry, then everything is AOK. (Don't read into this that I'm advocating for polygamy, I'm just pointing out the hypocritical Hollywood double standards when it comes to morality.) In one scene (see the clip below), single mom Frankie, threatens a law suit unless the principal lets her reckless and disrespectful son off the hook for blowing up the school's pool. The entire cast of characters are egotistic, selfish and self absorbed.

The writers have deemed that casual usage of profanity by both adults and children is 'realism', which is always less challenging than actual creative writing. While were on the subject of weak writing,..the time it takes for Sam to reveal to Frankie that they are siblings is way too long. Like in so many sitcoms, the entire conflict could be avoided if one of the characters just spoke up in a timely fashion, this film suffers from the same malady. Any sane person would never hatch the plan of action that Sam decides to put into play, of course if he had introduced himself to Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) as her brother it wouldn't be the story Mr. Kurtzman felt a need to tell. His screenplay is semi-autobiographical.

Most people are not like Hollywood movie industry people and their lavish lifestyles, they are not 'People Like (most of) Us'. When the big reveal does finally arrive at the end of the film it is very touching, you'd have to have left your heart at home to not be moved by it, and of course because of this we are to forgive all the infidelity, lies, secrets and betrayals because daddy loved both of his children. What does it matter if his two children have spent decades tormented, alienated from daddy and doubting themselves along with all the accompanying baggage.We'll just tie it up in a nice bow and everyone will live happily ever after.

This film is not for children nor is it for teens considering the life style lessons.In my opinion the PG-13 rating probably should have been an R for the language alone.

Synopsis:

Sam (Chris Pine), a cocky New York salesman, makes the unlikely and whip-fast transformation from shady to kindhearted when he uncovers a startling family secret. His professional world comes undone on the same day he learns that his estranged father has died. Along with his fiance, Hannah (Olivia Wild), he grudgingly returns home to L.A. for the funeral.

Upon arrival, he is immediately at odds with his, angry, bitter, self-absorbed mom Lillian (Michelle Pfeiffer).

His father's lawyer (Philip Baker Hall) asks for a meeting where he give Sam his inheritance, his father's old shaving kit. When he opens it, after the lawyer leaves, he discovers $150,000 inside and and odd request, to deliver the money to Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), a woman living on the margins with her reckless 11-year-old son, Josh (Michael Hall D'Addario). Sam decides to keep the money and resolve his financial troubles.

As it turns out, Frankie is Sam's half-sister, his dad's daughter from a liaison he had all but abandoned. Sam had no idea she existed. This situation serves up one of the hardest aspects of the story to swallow, the way Sam chooses to interact with Frankie. Where most people would likely just introduce themselves, Sam decides to sneak around and insert himself in her life, first off pretending to be a member of her AA group.

The movie is nearly over before Sam tells Frankie who he really is, well after some awkward moments in which Frankie mistakes his attentions as romantic interest. The big reveal is, of course, is the crux of the drama. But it in no way resembles how real people act. Consequently what is meant to be a major emotional climax feels forced.

The only intriguing aspect of the story, I suppose, is the contrast in how brother and sister expressed their disappointment with their dad as children. Sam resented his father's obsession with his work as a music producer, and as an adult he never bothered to visit or call while his father battled cancer. Frankie spent most of her life yearning for him and craving contact.

This emotional honesty is undercut by a clichéd scene (see clip below) in which Sam relates "six life lessons," to Josh, passed down from his dad, as Frankie listens covertly from the hallway all choked up and misty-eyed.

Mired in mawkish over-earnestness sentimentality, People Like Us does not actually come that close to the behavior of real human beings. Perhaps, People Unlike Us, would be a more accurate title.

The Cast:

      Chris Pine              Elizabeth Banks
Sam                            Frankie

Michelle Pfeiffer               Olivia Wilde

Lillian                                 Hannah

         Mark Duplass        Michael Hall D'Addario 
Ted                                    Josh