MovieChat Forums > Sinister (2012) Discussion > Movie was legendary and then.....

Movie was legendary and then.....

posted 9 years ago by shinofu88
61 replies | jump to latest

I enjoyed the hell out of the first part of the movie in which you were lured into this extremely creepy serial killer atmosphere in which the mysterious killer chose to store his personal snuff films he made for the new owners of the previous victims home to see. It was layed out perfectly and then BAM *beep* cliche paranormal ghost crap with ghost kids hushing with there index finger. It just became laughable after that especially the attic scene in which the kids faces were black and white decomposing but there arms and legs were normal flesh tone and healthy.

Someone definitely dropped the ball on this flick.

[–] xtro-2 9 years ago

I'm not sure how it's possible to NOT know that there wasn't a serial killer. Didn't you see the trailer?

[–] speculator-1 9 years ago

i can't speak for the OP, but while I may have caught the trailer in 2012 I didn't actually see the movie until I saw it last night.

The movie has a serious problem - just like "Jeepers Creepers", there is a genre shift at the midpoint. The supernatural element should have been introduced subtly in the first act.

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[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

There's no genre-shift unless you lead yourself to believe you're watching a story about a real serial killer who is terrible at hiding his crimes.

The supernatural elements were introduced slowly in the first act. Here's a clue, that scorpion shouldn't be there.

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[–] themidgarzolom 8 years ago

Why is a genre shift considered a problem necessarily? I understand some people liking the idea of a genre shift and some not, but why should we define it as a problem? Personally, I usually find genre shifts to be interesting.
"Red State" and "The Perfect Host" had some pretty cool distinct genre shifts, IMO. "Man of the Year" is a good counter-example of a genre shift which did not work at all, in my opinion.

I guess I would concede that the one typical issue that can be brought about by a genre shift is a feeling of unevenness in terms of action/fright versus suspense/build, in some cases... or the feeling of watching two movies that aren't connected thematically so well. By contrast, a movie like Pan's Labyrinth that equally intersperses the fantasy/horror elements with war/drama elements in equal measures throughout the movie might feel a little more even-keeled. Still.... I do like when a movie really throws you for a loop.

Anyways, my post isn't meant to criticize.. I just think it's an interesting discussion that doesn't get brought up that often.

[–] info-655-196140 8 years ago

There isn't a genre shift, maybe an expectation shift, the not knowing added to the suspense for me. At the beginning we assume it's just a murderer, then we come to realise otherwise, in other words we experience what Ellison did.

[–] stitchesaresore 9 years ago

To be fair to the OP, its entirely possible he or she didn't see the trailer. I love horror, but hadn't heard about this until some time in 2013, thanks to hype on a Facebook group.

I also make it a point to completely avoid all modern movie trailers. They just give too much away and the few that don't manage to make a movie sound completely different than what it actually is. Horror films are especially bad about posting all the "scary" moments in the trailers, removing any potential scares from the finished product.

[–] gil-galad_ 9 years ago

I had no clue what movie it was when my gf suggested it, I also thought it was about a serial killer and I do think I wouldve preferred that.

[–] VickeViking 9 years ago

I didn't see the trailer or even heard about the film before I saw it and I found it quite obvious that there would be a supernatural element to it. The whole sawing off the branch from up in the tree and a girl missing while the four others so "easily killed" gave it away as there is no way the girl would have gotten away and there is no way the girl would have done it without any supernatural influence.

[–] Velvet_Roses 9 years ago

As someone already pointed out, you would've probably been less disapointed if your expectations had been different.
Personally I think the paranormal demon thing just works on some people and not on others, same for the serial killer stuff. I find paranormal things scary and serial killer things laughable. For some it's the other way around. I liked the movie.

[–] optionx 9 years ago

Also disappointed with the supernational stuff. It wasn't your typical ghost buster exorcist mumbo jumbo so the overall thing wasn't awful, but I just had much higher expectations in the beginning of the film.

[–] maniuis 9 years ago

Agree 100%. This was gonna be Se7en and turned out to be The Blair Witch Project

[–] Danimal_77 9 years ago

Only the Blair Witch Project was actually scary.

[–] VariaIronhawk 9 years ago

That is such a matter of opinion. I personally hated Blair Witch. I liked this. While some people will prefer a serial killer or paranormal, the fact is no movie is going to make both sets happy. If you didn't like it, fine. But some of us do and I don't think there was a shift. The long periods of time and other subtle stuff are great clues. But you have to be thinking and some of it might only be seen on a second watch.

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[–] Muhhh 9 years ago

Yeah, when they stared doing the "shhh" stuff, it was like okay, this is just another hacky horror flick.

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

Right. So a serial killer leaving boxes of evidence just laying around in the victims houses makes SO much sense. Is that really what you thought was going on? That somehow the police missed this box of evidence when the house was a crime scene?

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[–] Danimal_77 9 years ago

Use your imagination. The killer could have broken in after the investigation and planted the videos for the writer to find them. Not THAT difficult, especially if the killer was maybe on the police force, which would have been interesting to see.

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

Killer on the police force has been done. Check out The Dead Zone.

And what would be the point of doing what you suggest? Why would any killer purposely leave evidence laying around? Especially when the writer could have easily turned the films in to the police.

Use your own imagination and imagine a fictional world where demons are real.

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[–] andersonsg-1 9 years ago

There's still no incriminating evidence in the snuff films really. Except what ended up being a rough visual of the evil deity. I can easily see a serial killer leaving the tapes to taunt the writer that Ethan Hawke was playing. And yeah, I totally hoped/thought it was Deputy So-And-So.

[–] king_of_bob 9 years ago

My point is, if it were just a normal serial killer this would eventually lead to an arrest. The fact that it's a supernatural entity means they would NEVER be able to trace the tapes back to a real person. But if it belonged to a human there would be bound to be hairs, fingerprints and fibers all over that box that could lead them to a human killer. What's on the films wouldn't be the only evidence.

I can easily see a serial killer leaving the tapes to taunt the writer that Ethan Hawke was playing

And if there was nothing hinky about the tapes and just showed a normal human dude committing murders, how long do you think it would be before he turned in the tapes? He only kept them because they were freaky weird.

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[–] wickedobvious 8 years ago

Wait, what? The deputy was played by an actor who was born in 1979. How does it make sense to you that he'd be playing a non-supernatural serial killer who started his cross-country killing spree in the 60s?

[–] ryan-r 9 years ago

I knew it was supernatural from the start. I don't even think I watched the trailer either

[–] Mitaka 9 years ago

Same here. I never saw the trailer. I saw the poster on Netflix, and figured it was a supernatural thriller. I was not disappointed. I quite enjoyed it.

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[–] svalinanikola 9 years ago

Why do you want to make the movie less scary and more illogical?