Sinister

'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

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...

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.

Obviously LOW LOW budget video. Not worth a watch by any means, total waste of time. Not even good enough for public access television. If someone offers you this video for free, decline it. Not worth the energy to carry it from your car to your house. Was more entertaining in the microwave than in the DVD player (try it). No-name actors put out horrendous "performances". I've seen better acting in a kindergarten Christmas play. If you see 10,000 movies this year, make sure this isn't one of them. If someone had given me the money it took to produce this film I would have bought a pizza instead. This is the kind of video that gets actors noticed, as in "I noticed how bad your acting was in this video and I'll never hire you." noticed. I was not even able to finish watching this movie because it was making me physically ill. It always makes me wonder what kind of idiot would finance these garbage movies. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this horrible movie. Stay home and watch reruns of Three's Company instead. At least that garbage is survivable.

After a riveting 10 minute opening of a woman very slowly running a bath and then taking a bath, I thought that this might be a stinker.

But much to my surprise, it then featured a woman talk to her pervy boss on the phone and go get a car wash. For 3 full minutes. Of a car wash.

My hopes soared. Maybe, just maybe, this was going to be a special kind of bad. Something so utterly ridiculous that you can't help but watch it.

Let me tell you friends, it is better to have hoped in life, than to never have hoped at all. Sometimes you will find that 1 in 100 Tubi gem. But this was not that time.

What you get with this one is just boredom shot on some guys' Dad's 1990s camcorder. So if you make it to the car wash, don't make the same mistake I did and instead, turn it off.