Sinister

Stars : Donna Hamblin & Lucien Eisenach. Written and Directed by: Steve Sessions. Film is incredible in execution ( pun intended). Setting is mostly a haunting house,But not confined to that…Lots of car footage and a very cool grave yard scene. Donna Hamblin is perfect linchpin of a leading lady,She is a definite go-to for any film. Lucien Eisenach has a persona perfect for a witch doctor or one who dabbles in black arts,Great celebrity look this side of Criss Angel. Monster was a nice touch,Maybe alittle stiff.

THE CAR,There is this Golden Hearse that Lucien drives quite an awe-worthy site up there with famous scary cars with bigger budgets. Early murders made snse and yet were senseless,Know what we mean ?

SINISTER is the story of a woman plagued by the eeevil conjurations of a vengeful voodoo practitioner. While this could have been a gripping tale of the supernatural, it is instead a dull tale of monotonous mumbo jumbo.

Even the hokum is hokey!

In order for this sort of film to work at all, it needs a frightening or intriguing villain. Not here. The bad guy is pitifully absurd.

WORST SCENE: The "eternal car wash sequence", where we are taken along through an entire car washing with the main character. Since it adds nothing to the story, one can only deduce that the prop car needed a wash on that day of filming!

There's nothing in this movie that elicits even an iota of fear in the viewer. That is, unless you are afraid of a few cockroaches or allergic to men in black nail polish...

So in the first 10 minutes I got the feeling I might be watching a low budget horror porn film and got a bit excited. However I was disappointed. Soon I found myself oddly watching through the rest of this hoping it might be some horror film gem, but realized by the end I wasted a good hour of my life.

I don't know if women take baths like in the opening death scene, but wow that was a pretty erotic bath for one woman. Then comes Donna Hamblin. Why is it that she has the worst/funniest/oddest reactions to things that would make a normal human being scream or yell? Why is it that she looks so awkward driving in her car when the audience doesn't even know a single thing about her?

From the get go all we know by watching is that there is this woman (Donna) driving a car and she just has this odd awkwardness to her that made me feel as if I should not really care if she should be the target of voodoo or murder in the first place. Not unlikeable, but not worth liking in my opinion. Lets just say that if this was her in real life she'd be loosing friends on Facebook.

Next comes more silly moments where she has this non yelling sort of frozen reaction to dreams she has. (If I saw a bunch of roaches in my bed I AM JUMPING OUT OF IT.) Mix that with a bunch of random driving scenes of her hipster/emo son and a Chris angel mind freak cemetery scene you have all the settings for a bad horror film that leaves you wondering why.

Im not saying don't watch, but I will say you have been warned. 2 stars for naked bathtub girl exfoliating like a porn star!

After reading the scathing (and amusing) review of slatromhsiloof, I had to watch this movie. Actually, I didn't find it all that bad, well, it was watchable. I would stop the movie from time to time but found that I kept going back and watching some more. Camera was obviously hand held a lot of the time and editing left something to be desired with scenes jumping around however I didn't find the acting all that bad. If you're looking for bad acting and dialog that is unbearable, even more so than Manos or Plan 9, try watching Birdemic: Shock and Terror.

OK, the movie is not that good, but it is worth a watch.

'Sinister' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Sinister' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky. The opening scene is oddly intriguing though pretty bizarre.

Unfortunately, the scenery is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting. Donna Hamblin in particular is an embarrassment.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both very poorly done.

A lot of 'Sinister' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease. Some elements are gratuitous to overused and abused effect, further adding to the cheapness.

Altogether, another very bad film. 2/10 Bethany Cox