Movie · 2012 · Horror, Thriller, Mystery · 1h 50m · R · English
Curator score: 3.6/10 (989.5K ratings)
Once you see him, nothing can save you.
Overview
True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt is in a slump; he hasn't had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims' home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.6/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.37/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
Metacritic: 53
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Scott Derrickson
Production
Automatik Entertainment, Blumhouse Productions, Alliance Films, IM Global, Summit Entertainment
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Vincent D'Onofrio, James Ransone, Fred Thompson, Clare Foley, Michael Hall D'Addario, Victoria Leigh, Blake Mizrahi, Cameron Ocasio, Danielle Kotch, Ethan Haberfield, Nicholas King, Tavis Smiley, Rachel Konstantin, Chester the Chihuahua
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, mean-spirited supernatural horror-thriller with a strong hook, eerie home-video imagery, and a genuinely nasty atmosphere. It’s not subtle, and some of the scares are more effective than elegant, but it delivers exactly the kind of escalating dread it promises.
Best for
Viewers who like true-crime-adjacent horror
Fans of haunted-house stories with a supernatural twist
People who want jump scares backed by a bleak mood
Audiences who enjoy horror built around found footage and home movies
Skip if
You want restrained, art-house horror
You’re tired of jump-scare-heavy filmmaking
You dislike films that lean on family-in-peril anxiety
You prefer ambiguity over explicit supernatural explanation
Overview
Sinister is built like a trap: a writer chasing a murder mystery moves his family into the wrong house and keeps pulling on the thread until the whole thing turns rotten. The setup is efficient, the mood is oppressive, and the film knows how to turn ordinary domestic spaces into places that feel contaminated. Ethan Hawke gives the material a frazzled, desperate energy that helps sell the character’s self-destructive obsession.
Worth noting
What makes it linger is the contrast between the procedural true-crime angle and the grotesque, supernatural imagery. The home movies are the movie’s strongest weapon, delivering a few genuinely hard-to-shake moments without needing much explanation. At the same time, the film can feel blunt, with some scares telegraphed and the mythology a little over-explained.
Bottom line
Still, as a piece of mainstream horror craft, it works. It’s nasty, efficient, and often more effective than it has any right to be, especially if you like your horror with a cold, cursed-video aesthetic and a sense that curiosity itself is the fatal flaw.
Top Letterboxd reviews
liam f (3.5★) · 9282 likes
nothing warms my heart more than seeing families hang out together
Erik 🎼 (3★) · 7248 likes
“there’s only one thing worse than a rapist..”
“a child”
“no-“
Mark Marshall (4★) · 5851 likes
If you are a crime writer who moves into a murder house in order to investigate how it became a murder house, you cannot get mad when you yourself are murder house’d.
ava adore (3.5★) · 4803 likes
ethan hawke's mind in this movie: true c RIMEEEEE AHHHH TRUE CRIME I DONT NEED MY WIFE OR MY TWO PIECE OF SHIT CHILDREN I HAVE THIS COOL TRUE CRIME HOUSE WOOOOOHOOOOO SUPER 8 FILM TRUE CRIME TRUE CRIME TRUE CRIME HAHAHAHAHAH I AM THE BEST WRITER EVER STEPHEN KING BETTER FUCK OFF Haha! Wooooooooooo!! Wait never mind we have to move bye-bye deputy so-and-so
CinemaVoid 🏴☠️ (2.5★) · 4645 likes
A scientific study suggests that Sinister is the scariest movie ever but the scariest thing about it was Ethan Hawke’s dirty cardigan. Wash that shit man.