Sinister Rouge . . . Sinister Review

I love horror movies.  I love sitting in the dark waiting for the next big scare, the next terrible thing, the next dream-scarring fright.  I went in to "Sinister" with high hopes.  It's been getting a lot of word-of-mouth that it's the scariest thing since "The Ring," and the comparisons are apt.  First, it deals with a mysterious set of 8mm movies discovered in the attic of a home where a family was brutally murdered.  Second, it has a supernatural connection to a series of murders.  As the movie progresses, our protagonists discovers that a being of some sort is at every crime, and scrawled on the wall (or hood of a car) is a strange, satanic rune.  And, just to stress the similarity between "Sinister" and "The Ring," if you watch the movies, you give evil an entrance into your life.

But that's about where the similarities end.  "The Ring" was taut, frightening and genuinely disturbing.  "Sinister" is not.  The story itself has potential, and the protagonist has a shot at being fully fleshed-out.  Playing a failing true-crime novelist, Ethan Hawke moves his family to the home of a family hung in their backyard under grisly circumstances.  Desperate to revitalize his career, he's willing to risk his life, his sanity and ultimately the lives of his family for another chance at success.  Soon after arriving, he discovers a box of 8mm movies in the attic, along with projector.  Intrigued, he plays the first movie and discovers that its footage previously unknown of the hangings which left the house empty, and such a steal on the market.

Worse, there are more movies, all of them grisly, some of them unknown, and the crime-writer knows he's stumbled over something big.  This might be the turn he's been looking for.  Studying the new films, he discovers a terrifying presence in the background of each, something sinister that we eventually learn is an ancient god who is "The Eater of Children."  This entity somehow lures children to his realm where he spends eternity devouring their souls.  We're told that the image of this entity is all it takes to lure children to the ultimate demise, so throughout the movie, the audience is left with the expectation that somehow, one of Ethan Hawke's darlings might stumble over the picture.

Alas, they never do.  This major oversight is what ultimately ruined the movie for me.  While the pacing was slow, and the scares where telegraphed thirty seconds in advance, or highlighted by the null space over his shoulder, I could have ignored these film-academy errors if the story was tighter.  The acting was fine, nothing superb but certainly not disappointing.  But I'll say it again, it just wasn't that scary and the plot holes were just too glaring to overlook.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this movie to a friend.