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Poor Ethan Hawke. First, he loses out on marriage to Uma Thurman. Then he tries to have a literary career. Oh, puh-leeze!!!!!!!!!!! He drops out of sight for awhile, and, when he comes back in "Sinister," he is a little long in the tooth. Plus, the character that he plays here, a supposed true crime writer named Ellison Osborn, is such a wuss, it's a wonder he is in this biz at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The opening shot of "Sinister shows a grainy piece of presumably found film footage, on which is seen a family being murdered by being hanged from a tree branch. It is arresting, poetic, and macabre, and pulls the viewer in. It is also the film's signature symbol, as it recurs repeatedly.
This turns out to be the Stevens family, who were all murdered, save for one missing, presumably surviving (or not!!!!) child. And it is to this home that Ellison brings his wife and children, without--get this, girls!!!!--telling them a thing!!!!!!!!!!!! Divorce court is clearly in this guy's future.
The age old domestic spat crops up. Ellison is hot in pursuit of fame. He wrote a crime book, "Kentucky Blood," about ten years before , that he is living off the laurels of, but he needs a hit badly. He thinks his book on the Stevens family, and the interconnected murders, (which he discovers thanks to some film footage, found in the attic!!!!) will be his next "In Cold Blood," but I can tell you two things--from the book jacket of "Kentucky Blood" Osborn is not the writer Capote is, and he has no balls!!!!! Because, every time something happens in the house, he shakes, trembles, cowers, falls down stairs, and screams, I started to think he was the film's heroine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Juliet Rylance (stepdaughter of British actor Mark Rylance, which is the only way she got cast!!!!) tries to fill that role, but she comes off a a shrewish bitch who has had it with her husband wanting fame, and wants to be distinctly middle class!!!!!!!!! Well, screw you!!!!!!! Even while she is giving Ellison the dish, she has enough sense to see he does not have the mojo for his work. Especially when their son, Trevor, starts acting out sonambulistically, and drawing pictures replicating the Stevens murders!!!!
Maybe the teachers thought he was just playing "Hangman!!!!!!!!!"
After "The House At The End Of the Street," anything would seem good!!!!!!! But "Sinister" has a script that sticks to where it is going, and maintains credibility, even if it still echoes other horror films (like "8 Millimeter" and "The Ring") of the past, plus some fetching and atmospheric cinematography and editing, which shows the people behind the cameras here understood what they were doing!!!!!!!!!!
Too bad James Ransome, who plays a deputy sheriff in the film, was not killed off. He is the most annoying film character to hit the screen in ages!!!!!!!!!! And when Ellison has his show down with little daughter Ashley, you have to hand it to her, for a great line! Before bashing Daddy's head in with an ax almost as big as he, Ashley promises Daddy what he has wanted all along. "Don't worry, Daddy! I'll make you, famous!" And does she ever, darlings--as a murder victim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to watch out for little Ashley, superbly played by Clare Foley. It really is always the quiet ones!!!!!!!!!!!! No Laura Ashley, this kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only does Ellison get the fame he asked for, he gets what he deserved for being such a wuss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Sinister" is such fun; I am telling you, girls, you have to see it!!!!!!!!!!!
It also proves that, even with his prissy voice, Truman Capote, unlike Ellison Osborn here, was one butch thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just like Aphrodite Jones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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