Sinister: Good and Creepy

Mr. Apollyon visited us yesterday at The Abandoned Video Shop, if you have forgotten he is the mysterious man who gets us all the new releases on video. He gave us a copy of Sinister saying: "Watch this with the lights off."

To which Old Reg replied: "The lights are always bleedin' off here."

Anyway we did what Mr. Apollyon said, it's always best to do what Mr. Apollyon says, and watched Sinister in darkness. I phoned up the Saturday help, twins Leslie and Lesley to see if they wanted to watch it but they said it was on Netflix, I said OK, making out I knew what that was and I'd see one, or other of them on Saturday.

"Sod 'em," Old Reg said getting impatient. "And fire up the Wharfdale."

Sinister was a good, creepy watch but as Old Reg said "Even bleeding Dumbo would be creepy in this bleep, bleeping shop."

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a down on his luck true crime writer who moves his family into a house where the previous owners were all hanged in the back garden, well all except for the youngest child who has gone missing. So Ellison feels this will be subject matter of the book that will return him to former glories. In the loft he finds a box of old Super 8 home movies that sends him deeper into the mystery and horror. Sinister is very much in Stephen King territory, but director Scott Derrickson, who was also co-writer along with C. Robert Cargill, keeps the tension levels up with lots of good jumps. Old Reg tutted every time I jolted from my seat. Ethan Hawke holds the film together well, with a conviction that carries us with him. The main villain Bughuul is quite scary, as Old Reg said: "He looks like me after a night on the beer." And I had to agree, but if anything Old Reg looks worse. E

ven if it does stick to the tried and trusted horror traditions, Sinister is a good creepy watch.

The Owner