Sinister review - the horror event of 5th October

Every film critic tired of watching generic horror film after generic horror film has thought the same thing: ‘I could write a better film than this’. On the evidence of C. Robert Cargill’s first foray into the world of horror screenwriting, it turns out you can’t, but you can give it a decent stab. Directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson, Sinister tells of one-hit-wonder crime writer Ellison Oswalt, respectably played by Ethan Hawke, who moves his family into the house of an unsolved, brutal murder. From this venture he seems to hope to score another bestseller and perhaps not to provoke an ancient evil, but who knows. 

Literally just turn a light on...

Sinister is not without merit but it is cripplingly by-the-books. An over reliance on jump scares leaves the audience unsure whether they are tense due to well-constructed suspense or for fear of their ears, as each jump scare is inexplicably accompanied by a ludicrously loud bang. Sinister is at its best when we’re presented with Ellison working on the case, pinning up evidence, lining up the clues. From Zodiac to Fear X to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there is something compelling and impulsive about the obsessive, near-fetishist lying out of information. For what it is, someone pinning up notes, photos and clippings, it’s very cinematic. However, for every moment that skips along nicely there are handfuls that sag and grate. Why, for example, does the menace of the film seem fixated on making the camera jump rather than a character that would clearly see said menace standing just out of shot ready to lean in and say ‘boo’? Furthermore, there is an element to the film that explicitly recalls Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful The Devil’s Backbone, opening them up to heavily one-sided comparison.  

Derrickson directs with confidence and most actors hold up well, a special mention goes to the always watchable James Ransone as a bumbling but on-the-ball local deputy. Derrickson’s bogeyman tale is decent, jumpy fun and a film that awkwardly works best when being a crime mystery and not an all-out horror. It is contrived and ultimately throwaway but as a Halloween night out, Sinister holds up pretty well against the yearly onslaught of sequels and remakes.

"Ahh! Why am I in a box?!"

Peter Strickland's film of the year - Berberian Sound Studio

Berberian Sound Studio is a smug film like few others. It loves itself. It loves how clever, how different, how unconventional it is. There hasn’t been a film more vain since last year’s Kill List, the Frightfest film also promoted by Total Film. Peter Strickland’s follow up to the beautiful Katalin Varga tells of, no, alludes to the tale of British sound engineer, Gilderoy, going to work on a giallo horror film (sorry, a Santini film). But what toll will the violence and depravity that Gilderoy is bringing to life take on his mental and, perhaps, physical wellbeing.

Vegetables were harmed in the making of this picture

 The problem is that, without giving anything away (not that there’s much to), the film deliberately delivers on none of the intrigue the initial thirty minutes sets up. A conceptual film is fine but Berberian Sound Studio is neither here nor there and ultimately falls flat on all fronts: too much story to work on a conceptual level, not enough validation to work on a narrative level. Its ambition of being somewhat about what cinema intrinsically is recalled Antonio Campos’ sublime, under seen debut Afterschool, a film all about observation and perspectives and one that works on all levels Berberian Sound Studio doesn’t.

Toby Jone tunes up as Gilderoy

Roger Ebert once said that Mulholland Drive was an experiment that didn’t break the test-tube. For the first half hour Strickland’s film feels like such an experiment, one rife with reference, humour, unease and some wonderful sections of gruesome sound recordings, but after the initial promise any hope deflates rapidly. The film is conceited, portentous and in the end, frustratingly insulting to its audiences' intellect. The film is in a way an ode to cinema but if only it was really cinema itself.