SINISTER

The worst thing that Hideo Nakata’s ‘Ringu’ did to the horror genre was crystallise the idea of technology as being a conduit for paranormal activity – a ghost in the machine that could, and would, tear up your bandwidth. Centring a film on a killer videotape was a good trick, and like any good trick, it was worth repeating (which he did, in 1999's ‘Ring 2’). ‘Sinister’ owes a lot to Nakata’s moody, unbearably dread-filled shocker, and riffs on the idea of images – specifically, films – being gateways for malevolent beings intent on soul-snatching and lawnmower homicide. It’s an apt metaphor for the nature of nightmares and the power of storytelling, but ‘Sinister’ too often settles for tired clichés and unfocused scares, despite striving for something more cerebral.

It’s hard to care much for Ellison and his family, who round out the roles of "long-suffering wife", "moody pre-teen" and "creepy psychic conduit" without enthusiasm. It’s also hard to care about Ellison’s actions, which seem needlessly self-serving and stupid. Writing is an internal process, and director Scott Derrickson faces an uphill struggling making it cinematically engaging – especially since the film mostly consists of Ellison sitting, watching, and thinking. With almost all of the narrative drive being communicated through the (admirably) distressing 8mm horror shows Ellison uncovers in his attic, too often the film amounts to the audience watching a film of an audience watching a film... which is as interesting as it sounds.

Where lesser films have failed for similar reasons, they’ve also been saved by the power of their central reason for existing: their ghost. Monster movies are only as strong as their Big Bad, and for all the film’s forgiveable exposition, languid pacing, and disinteresting repetition, it comes completely undone with an illogical and frustratingly inert central villain. (Once the visual and literal similarities between ‘Mr Boogie’ and – spoiler – Michael Jackson become apparent, a level of hilarity descends that’s hard to ever shake.) He’s simply not frightening, being cobbled together by tangential narrative threads and ideas because, well... what’s a ghost story without a ghost?

Combined with an obvious "mystery", portentously gloomy tone, and a lack of meaningful engagement, ‘Sinister’ boils down some nice (and disturbing) ideas into something too bland and homogeneous to really work. Rooting for the demise of your central characters is never preferable in films like this, but in the case of ‘Sinister’, the inevitable end can’t come quick enough.