Sorry it's been so long since I've written a review, but life seems to have caught up with me. I hope this is a small repayment on a larger investment. Anyway....
Being an old school horror guy, who's been in love with monsters since he was a kid, it's hard for me to feel a scare anymore. It's nice to have that rush every once in a while. 'Sinister' started out with the real potential to be something great. The opening sequence is disturbing, unsettling and generally kind of creepy. What happens for the next 45 minutes after that is also pretty damn frightening. However, at the end of the day.... the payoff just wasn't there. It was yet another horror movie with a great premise and great promise, that seemed to have the writer's lose their train of thought at the end. We've all been in this same situation. I can't tell you how many times I've come up with a fantastic idea for a story and the more I try and flush it out, the less and less fantastic the story becomes. It's as if the producers of this movie only heard the basic concept and didn't take time to hear the whole treatment. This would be one of those times where I wish that a director would take over a movie from another director and re-do his ending, rather than remake another movie that may or many not need a remake. Not that I'm against remakes per say, I'm just tired of watching something and loving it up until the end, only to feel cheated.
What makes this movie interesting, is the back story of the main character and the motives of the killer. Ethan Hawke does a great job, as usual, of playing a writer who'e haunted by the books he writes. He infiltrates the headspace of serial killers and writes books about them and the murders they committed. Sometimes he gets so involved that it causes him to have to move several times and is costing him his marriage and family. Soon, his mind seems to be starting to go too. As he begins work on his new book, we find him moving in to yet another home. What his family doesn't realize is, that this is the house where the last murders took place in his book. Nobody in town wants him living there or in their town and his kids aren't too keen on it either. Soon, he discovers a box of old films and a projector in the attic. Unable to help himself, he begins watching the films. What ends up being on the films are the murders of each family he's writing about. It's almost as if he's being fed information by the killer himself. As he continues watching the films, he starts noticing a figure that seems to show up at each murder site. This plummets him into the mouth of madness and just as everything seems to be falling apart.... we find out the true story behind Mr. Boogie and the murders contained on each film. I just can't say you'll care.
I keep thinking about the ending of this movie and trying to justify what I saw. Sadly, the killer who made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, turns into something far less frightening. The special effects go from disturbing to just plain silly. Ethan Hawke continues to try and sell what you're seeing, but it's just so far fetched and "green screened" that you never regain the fear you had in the beginning. I feel that this is a solid 3 out of 5 star outing. I still want to give it 4, but the way it all wrapped up was just too far fetched and far from the original concept. Why oh why did they have to poop on the finale? If the Bluray has an alternate ending on it, I'd love to see it. Maybe it sheds a better light on things?
My final thoughts are this: The individual 16 mm home movies of each killing, are pretty intense. I've seen far worse, but for a standard Hollywood horror flick, they are better than average and far more disturbing. The killer is fairly scary looking. Anymore, it's hard to come up with something we've never seen before and Mr. Boogie seems to fit that bill. Finally, I've said this many times before about many different movies.... turn this one off about 20 - 30 minutes from the ending. Your guideline on when to stop, is somewhere around when the backwards walking kids start showing up. I have no freaking clue who thought it was a good idea to have the kids filmed backwards and they played forwards, as a device to make them more creepy. Perhaps they took a cue from all of the J-horror flicks out there, but that's not exactly what they're doing and that's not what the J-horror directors were intending. It just comes off as stupid. The whole 5 - 7 minute montage of the kids moving all around Ethan's character, is supposed to be scary. The end result is anything but that. It comes off more as a joke. An unintentional joke.
Anyway, that's it! If you have some spare time, you could do far worse than 'Sinister'. It really reminds me of another set of let down of a good start movies, 'Insidious' and 'Dead Silence'. (both of which were done by James Wan.) Just check your brain at the door, turn off the lights and drink heavily. Perhaps by they time the kids start moving strangely, so will your brain and your vision and you can see past the crap that follows. ENJOY responsibly.
With a simple title like 'Chop', this movie can easily sneak under the average film goers radar. It's unassuming and not your average big budget blockbuster. It's the dictonary definition of an indie film. Now, this little comedy nasty is directed by the writer of 'Deadgirl', Trent Haaga. Why he didn't write this? I'm not sure. You may have heard of 'Deadgirl' (if you read my review), but this one never got the same recognition, as it's not as controversial. Where as 'Deadgirl' was a very dark and twisted tale of the "undead" and other ugly things, this is more of a light hearted look at revenge. I actually had really high hopes after watching the trailer and I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the movie. Towards then end though, it kind of started to fall apart just a bit. Not too mention that the ending was either the most satisfying ending ever written or the least satisfying ending ever written. I still am not sure exactly how I feel about the movie as a whole, since the ending was so.... um, odd. If you want to see it, before you finish this review, it's available on Netflix OnDemand as of this past week. Also, you may recognize the lead actor and are asking yourself, "Who the hell is that guy and where do I know him from?" His name is Will Keenan. He's the star of Troma's classic Shakespeare adaptaion, 'Tromeo and Juliet'. He really stands out in this movie and I kind of hope it finally gives him a bit more stardom than he's had before. Honestly, everyone in this movie seems to really be enjoying the whole experience. I think it has a lot to do with the somewhat original storyline. Let's get to that part, before going any further.
You now have all of the pieces of the puzzle, but what you don't have is the ending. I'm not entirely sure that the writer did either. Like I said earlier, I can't determine how I feel about it. I don't want any spoilers here, just in case you decide to see it. And I don't know that I have a better ending in mind. It just felt too much like a student film. Perhaps that's my issue with it. The fact that it seemed like the typical student film finale. One that is supposed to be ironic or cool, but as the film maker gets more seasoned, they realize that they can do so much more to create a good ending. It doesn't make it bad, it just makes it feel a bit lazy. As the same time, it's so rare to see someone take a leap of faith and go for the gut punch ending. I can honestly say that I did NOT see the ending playing out the way it did. I really had no idea how it could end well. You're also given lots of possible solutions along the way, but they never really reveal much. It's refreshing.
i had somewhat high hopes for this movie.... the reviews were generally positive, the plot sounded somewhat interesting and i had nothing better to do.... i really should have found something better to do.... i really should have.... this movie was terrible.... i don't even have enough words to describe how awful this was.... it started out okay, but it's like a piece of chicken sitting out in the hot sun for three days.... it went from okay to putrid and rotted.... it's been awhile since i've seen a movie with such a lame ending.... and just when i thought it was done, it got worse.... it was almost as if they wanted to prove how bad they could make it if they tried.... i'm sure it made their mothers proud.... sadly, it just made me sad.... 
i suggest you avoid this one.... no matter how curious you are about it, trust me, it's just not worth it.... i can't wash out my eyes or my brain.... 1 out of 5 stars and the only star that i gave this was for the short running time.... how do these things continually get made....? 
this movie comes off like a SyFy original presentation.... hell, those are better than this was.... i'm sure some people are out there that enjoyed this movie, but there are also people who really enjoyed 'Ernest Scared Stupid'.... i barely gave it 1 out of 5 stars.... i wish i could get my money back, but it was free OnDemand.... and time is something that you can never get back, even if you fly around the earth backwards really really fast.