đź“˝ Trailer Breakdown: Sinister (2012)
The Sinister (2012) trailer captures the audience’s attention immediately. It first starts off with Ellison Oswalt, a true crime novelist, shifting houses with his wife and two children into a new home that taints a bloody and dark history. His goal is to write a book uncovering the details of a gruesome unsolved murder case. Furthermore, it features true crime writers, which tends to be one of the more uncommon sub-genres in novels.
While Ellison is rummaging through the attic, he comes across a box filled with super 8 home movies. It seems to have been left behind by the previous owners of the house. As he attempts to watch the movies, the footage feels like standard family videos. However, as he plays it, the movie abruptly changes pace and transforms into vicious snuff films showing exceptionally gruesome murders. Moreover, there are strange ghastly shadows that appear along with the distorted audio and flip-flopping reels that add to the terror.
The trailer opens with the creepy Bughuul, a demonic figure who is hiding in the footage, and continues with horrifying children’s art, whispers in the dark, and a terrifying soundtrack. The visuals are spine chilling and the soundtrack is disturbing, suggestng that this is unlike any other horror story. The further Ellison goes, the more danger he puts himself and his family into. The trailer concludes with one unsettling question: Is it too late for them?
🎠Cast & Characters:
Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt – A struggling true crime writer whose obsession with the footage begins to drive him into paranoia and fear.
Juliet Rylance as Tracy Oswalt – Ellison’s wife who is supportive yet hides suspicion, and grows increasingly worried about her husband’s troubling behavior.
Fred Thompson as Sheriff – The local law enforcement officer who cautiously tells Ellison to leave the case alone because there is more to it than what meets the eye.
James Ransone as Deputy So-and-So – A cynical yet well-meaning officer who comes to Ellison’s aid and helps him solve the puzzle, dare to say, against his better judgment.
Clare Foley as Ashley Oswalt – Young daughter of Ellison who has become disturbingly artistic, painting the nightmares she ends up having about the victims.
Michael Hall D’Addario as Trevor Oswalt – The son of Ellison who has severe sleep masks along with heightened violent forms of nightmares and unexplained sleepwalking episodes.
Nicholas King as Bughuul (Mr. Boogie) – A monstrous form that feeds upon children’s souls and possesses them through images and recordings.
đź“– Plot Synopsis:
Ellison Oswalt wishes to write another best seller book. To do so, he opts to move in with his family to a new house without disclosing its dark secrets. For context, this house was previously owned by a family who was brutally slaughtered and one of the children never got to be found. Ellison uses this backstory as an opportunity to gain fame and fortune by solving the mystery that surrounds this house.
In the process of exploring, he finds a box that contains a series of labeled home movies that state, such as “Pool Party,” “BBQ,” “Sleepy Time,” and finds them innocent enough to watch while hoping he finds something of value to his mystery shrine. However, what he finds is a set of deeply unsettling films that detail the slaughtering of families in terribly calculated methods which all send tremors through his body as they reveal themselves because he realizes all these murders stem from one connected source.
While Ellison continues to investigate, strange things begin to happen in the household. Trevor, his son, suffers from horrifying night terrors that cause him to wake up screaming. Ashley, his daughter, starts to make chilling paintings that depict the murdered families, to which she should not know so much detail. At nights, Ellison begins to hear weird noises and see shadowy figures in the dark.
His investigation brings him to a unsettling legend of Bughuul. This ancient pagan deity is known as the Eater of Children. This monster can use recorded images as a portal into the real world where she can control and possess children, forcing them to murder their families before disappearing into the dark. The families that Ellison has been studying? All of them met the same end.
As the information becomes apparent, the Ellison family learns that all the movies’ account has marked them as the next casualties in this grim story. However, he attempts to flee from the nightmare and unknowingly tangling them into an ending which will leave them restless long after the credits roll.
🎬 Main Highlights For The Viewer’s Attention:
Sinister is a must-watch for anyone who loves psychological horror movies because this movie stays with you long after you are done watching it. This film’s somewhat suspenseful premise differentiates it from many horror films that rely on obnoxious jump scares, capturing coarse audiences in a vise of uneasiness. Bughuul’s cloying figure alongside the Mega 8 footage and unsettling sound design creates an all-encompassing horrifically immersive experience.
The performance by Ethan Hawke perfectly encapsulates the idea of a man falling apart from his own discovery. The movie’s slow-burn partake is perfectly incorporated thus making all the eerie moments dazzling. The film also reveals an extraordinary and unimaginable dreadful mystery—an entity that mediates through the media, making even the viewers appear sinister.
Sinister provides vivid sights, clickbaiting narration, and a jarring climax making it a top pick for horror fans who don’t settle with eating the worst of chicken soup while comforting themselves in a blanket but rather find enjoyment peeping at the world’s most sinister works.