HORRORDROME: Sinister (2012)

(Tonight we're welcoming a new guest poster in our ranks. RaptoR is a self-professed horror movie fanatic who's watched a vomitload of random horror flicks most people wouldn't even consider giving a shot. Yet, somehow, he has taken it upon himself to give each one of these dime-a-dozen movies a fair chance. So, every once in a while - we can't really control his actions, unfortunately - he's going to share with us his thoughts on a bunch of horror movies he's watched. I'm always up for filling my IMDB watchlist with all sorts of garbage. If you are too, you'd do well to watch out for RaptoR and his column.)

Back in the old days, when I was in university and living in a dorm, me and a roommate of mine made a habit of watching at least one horror movie per night. That, of course, when we weren't study hard for the exams (getting drunk as hell). Now, if you're like me and love horror movies you know that there isn't just one genre of horror. There are tons! From the ones that creep you with just the idea itself, like The Others, to the ones full of gore, like Saw, everybody has a different taste.

I had the luck to have a roommate that likes the same genre of horror films as I do, the fucked up one.

Now, when I say "fucked up movies" I don't mean fucked up as in full of gore, but more as in full of facts that twist you up just by being presented to you. The idea, the soundtrack and the screenplay is enough to give you a big scare. Of course, there aren't enough movies in this genre to watch every day, or every other day for a year so most of the time we were stuck with stupid, low budget, mediocre movies and we had to watch them just because we didn't have anything better to do.

The last 2-3 years didn't brought anything good in my opinion so I started thinking that the fucked up genre had died. So it isn't hard to believe that I raised a big eyebrow when that ex-roommate of mine left me an offline message on yahoo messenger stating that "DUDE, YOU REALLY HAVE TO WATCH SINISTER". So there I was on some random tracker buying the movie with my hearth pumping faster than ever. Could this be? Could this movie put an end to the 3 year long pause in my activity of watching fucked up movies? While my movie was still downloading I took a peak on it's imdb page. The leading actor, Ethan Hawke was unknown to me. I usually don't remember names or faces but I browsed through his filmography in hope that I see a known horror movie he played in, but with no success. So I lowered my expectations a little and proceed watching the movie. And my God, my ex-roommate was right. Sinister manages to combine scare scenes with the concept of "scary just by the idea" with great success. I really can't remember the last time I was sitting so tense in front of a horror movie and the only other recent movie I can compare it with is The Orphanage. Now, don't get me wrong, the plots in Sinister and The Orphanage are miles away, I'm just talking about the atmosphere they managed to create.

In short, the movie tells the story of Ellison Oswalt, a success writer that concentrates on solving old crimes. The movie starts with the typical family that moves into a new house in a new city, house that had some problems in the past. Ellison's intentions in that house are to solve a chain of murders that took place long ago in, or around that house. I will stop here with the plot because I really don't want to spoil anything and trust me, this is one horror movie that you must watch it without any info given to you prior of starting it. I will however quote a part of a review I found on IMDB: "There was actually a girl sitting next to me whom I did not know, but she was laughing away to herself and her friends saying that the film was...Sh*t. Well let me tell you, when that first big jump came, I don't think I have ever seen someone actually make air in a chair before. The rest of the films duration saw her hiding behind her hands, jumping like clockwork, and concluded with her saying "That was the scariest film I have ever seen!" The point being, give this movie a chance because it will pay off in the end!"

One last thing. Try to avoid going on IMDB before watching the movie. To satisfy your curiosity, it has a 6.9 rating and Horror|Mystery genre. That's all you have to know. Avoid going there and avoid watching any trailer. Like I said before, this is the kind of movie that you have to watch unspoiled.