Sinister is a 2012 supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson, and Vincent D'Onofrio. The plot revolves around true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Hawke) whose discovery of Super 8 home movies depicting grisly murders found in the attic of his new house puts his family in danger.
Sinister was inspired by a nightmare co-writer C. Robert Cargill had after watching the 2002 film The Ring. Principal photography on Sinister began in Autumn of 2011 with a production budget of $3 million. To add the authenticity of old home movies and snuff films, the Super 8 segments were shot on actual Super 8 cameras and film stock. The film was a co-production between the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The film premiered at the SXSW festival. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2012, and in the UK on October 5, 2012. Sinister received positive reviews, praising the acting, direction, music, cinematography, and atmosphere, but received some criticism for its use of jump scares (most notably the lawnmower scene) and horror cliches. The film was a box office success, grossing $87.7 million against its budget of $3 million. The film's financial success spawned a sequel, Sinister 2, released in the United States on August 21, 2015.
Plot[]
True crime writer Ellison Oswalt moves into a home in the fictional town of Chatford, Pennsylvania with his wife Tracy, their 12-year-old son, Trevor, and their 7-year-old daughter, Ashley. Unbeknownst to his wife and children, Ellison has moved them into the home where the Stevenson family were killed by hanging. He intends to write a biography about the case, to regain the fame he lost after his bestselling book Kentucky Blood was followed by two less successful novels. He hopes to learn the fate of 10-year-old Stephanie Stevenson, who disappeared following the murders.
Ellison finds a box in the attic that contains a scorpion, as well as a projector and reels of Super 8 film, each labeled as home movies. The films are footage of different families being murdered in various ways, each with a related but innocuous title, such as a mass drowning marked as "Pool Party '66." Each killing is performed by the unseen camera operator. Ellison notes the appearance of a mysterious symbol and a strange, eerie man in the films. Ellison matches footage of a throat-slitting murderer to news reports from St. Louis, Missouri in 1998. Three members of the Miller family were killed, while 13-year-old Christopher Miller vanished. One night, Ellison investigates noises in the attic. Inside the film reels' canister lid, he finds a king snake and childlike drawings depicting the killings, with an eerie figure called "Mr. Boogie" also present. At one point, Ellison encounters a Rottweiler in the back garden.
Ellison consults a local deputy and discovers that the filmed murders took place at different times and in different cities across the country dating back to 1966. A child from each family disappeared following every murder. And before the Stevensons moved to Chatford, they lived in the Millers' former house. The deputy refers Ellison to occult specialist Professor Jonas, to decipher the symbol in the films. Jonas relates the symbol to the ancient and obscure Babylonian god Bughuul, who would kill entire families and take one of their children to consume their soul slowly. Jonas suspects the murders are part of a cult initiation rite, rather than the work of a single murderer. As Ellison investigates footsteps and noises throughout the home one night, it is revealed that ghost-like children invisible to Ellison are the cause, with one of them appearing in Ashley's bedroom. Ashley later paints this girl, who she identifies as Stephanie Stevenson, on the wall. Another night, Ellison hears the film projector running and finds the missing children seated in the attic watching one of the films. Bughuul appears on camera before physically appearing before Ellison. Ellison takes the camera, projector, and snuff films outside and destroys them. He tells Tracy that they are moving back to their old home.
Jonas sends Ellison, now back at his old house, historical images associated with Bughuul, including the mysterious symbol and three symbolic creatures that Ellison encountered at the Stevenson house: a scorpion, a snake, and a dog. Early Christians believed that images of Bughuul served as a gateway for the monster to come from the spiritual realm to the mortal world, and Bughuul can possess children who come into contact with these images. Ellison discovers the unharmed projector and films in his attic, along with a new film labeled "Extended Cut Endings". The deputy calls Ellison and informs him that every deceased family had once lived in the house where the previous murders took place. He also learns from Professor Jonas the pattern: each new murder occurred shortly after the family moved from the crime scene into a new home, traced back to the killing of the Martinez family by arson in 1979 after they moved to Sacramento, California, from the Portland, Oregon, site of the 1966 drownings. By moving away from the Stevenson house, Ellison has marked himself and his family as the next victims. The new footage depicts the missing children coming onscreen following each murder, revealing themselves to be the murderers under Bughuul's influence.
Ellison becomes lightheaded and notices a green liquid at the bottom of his coffee mug, along with a note from Ashley that says, "Good night, Daddy," before losing consciousness. He awakes to find himself, Tracy, and Trevor bound and gagged on the floor. Ashley, having been influenced by the spirit of Stephanie Stevenson to fall under Bughuul's control, approaches them while filming with the 8 mm camera. She tells her father that she will make him "famous again", and proceeds to slaughter her family with an axe. She then uses their blood to paint pictures on the walls of the hallway, along with Bughuul's symbol on a door. Ashley views the film of her murders while drawing the killing in the lid of the home movies box. The missing children stare at her through the movie but flee when Bughuul appears. He lifts Ashley into his arms and teleports into the movie. The box of films sits in the Oswalt family's attic, now accompanied by Ashley's reel titled House Painting '12. Bughuul then jumpscares the audience.