Sinister

Before Ethan Hawke went on to play the notably creepy masked villain The Grabber in Scott Derrickson’s two Black Phone features (2021 and 2025), he appeared in the director’s hard-hitting, found-footage-fueled freak-out Sinister, in which he’s essentially our hero. Many viewers, though, might rightly argue that true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt isn’t exactly a stand-up guy. For starters, he’s completely self-centered, and knowingly moves his family to a small-town Pennsylvania house with a brutal history, choosing not to let any of them in on the gruesome details.

The movie generates large doses of fear in small spaces, and dark, shadowy atmosphere steers the show. We are witness to Ellison’s research process in extreme close-up. It’s strangely easy to watch Hawke do mundane things; he’s a consistently fine actor who has especially good taste in genre films. We are spellbound as he projects 8mm home movies he finds in the attic. The footage reveals that it’s not just ordinary murders taking place in these snuff films—there might also be something supernatural at play. And it seems to be present in their new home as well. Creepy bangs and creaks sound all around him. We watch him panic at the thought that he might be losing his grip, and as he pours down whiskey, we’d like to share a glass with him to calm our own shaken nerves. Ellison’s daughter never wanted to be there; the local police chief warns him to leave; strange things start happening to his son in his sleep. All the signs are there for the family to get the hell out, but he continues to care more about reclaiming the inspiration he’s been unable to find in the decade since the massive success of his book Kentucky Blood than about their wishes and well-being.

The idea for the film apparently came from a Ring-induced nightmare suffered by screenwriter C. Robert Cargill, and that checks out. Sinister has the feel of a particularly nasty dream you can’t seem to shake hours after waking. The soul-devouring supernatural villain who appears in some of the videos, known as Mr. Boogie or Bughuul, offers a new variation on the age-old concept of a bogeyman who haunts people mid-slumber. The images we’re witness to, with or without him, are so genuinely jarring that no amount of jump scares, or frustration felt from watching an overindulgent wife cater to her petty husband, can loosen the film’s death grip. Even those so attuned to horror movies that they claim immunity to cinema-inflicted fear might find their limits tested by Sinister—and may leave the light on for ages before attempting sleep after the film’s bleak, terrifying conclusion.