Sinister
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: October 12, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasOct 10, 2012
It's all done in questionable taste, mucking around in the nasty terrain of snuff films and children in constant peril, but Sinister is smart and well-crafted, and it scarcely gives the audience a moment to breathe. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 23, 2012
Now this is a scary movie. And, given that it's a horror film, that means it's a good one. [18 Oct 2012]
80
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenOct 11, 2012
Rather than another drearily workaday horror picture, Sinister uses the supernatural to underline its examination of the all-too-human foibles of insecurity and myopic self-centeredness. As the best horror stories so often do, Sinister makes clear that we are our own boogeymen, the worst monsters of all. Read full review
80
Village VoiceNick PinkertonOct 9, 2012
Hawke's taut performance - lightly parodying his own career doldrums while playing an egotistical hack who's a close cousin of John Cassavetes's self-loathing actor in Rosemary's Baby - is totally credible. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 22, 2012
The scares are not just intense but unyielding in this compelling horror yarn from "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" director Scott Derrickson. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonOct 12, 2012
It comes together with a gruesome though excellent ending that some will find difficult to shake. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 11, 2012
Even though the ending is inescapable (and therefore predictable), that does little to diminish its effectiveness. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 10, 2012
And then there is Vincent D'Onofrio, as a university professor of the occult and mythological, who opens up a line of possibility that eventually saves the ending from being a red herring. Yes, the ending is horrifying, but I don't believe in that stuff. I'm pretty sure I don't. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOct 10, 2012
I knew perfectly well, after a while, what Sinister was going to scare me with. But I got scared anyway. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 22, 2012
The movie makes up for uneven dialogue and pacing issues through sheer horrific imagery. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeOct 10, 2012
Occasionally stupid (stretching even fright-flick conventions) but scary nonetheless, the picture should please horror fans. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisOct 11, 2012
The clichés are still clichés. They've just been renovated. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 16, 2012
Sinister has so much going for it - adult psychology, a great bitchfest of a marital meltdown - that you wince when it finally makes some rather dull choices involving the supernatural. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanSep 30, 2012
Derrickson bounces back from his insipid redo of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with an effective chiller that's got a skeleton or two in its closet. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbySep 28, 2012
An enjoyable, if boilerplate, boo-flick that maintains an enviable rate of scares per minute by throwing everything – demons, ghosts, snakes, loud noises – at the screen. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 11, 2012
Here's the thing: Found footage is scary when - because - it leaves you to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself. But actually watching whole families have terrible things done to them - well, hard-core horror fans may dig it, I guess. I'd call it forced voyeurism of the worst sort. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 11, 2012
A mixed bag of old-school and contemporary horror tricks that occasionally raises a hair prickle of intrigue. Read full review
50
USA TodayScott BowlesOct 11, 2012
Despite the hype, this horror story can't shake its run-of-the-mill storytelling. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 10, 2012
The film's sound design is also expertly wrought with a blend of nearly subliminal noises, bumps in the night, and other frights. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyOct 10, 2012
Ellison's fascination with celluloid to solve a crime recalls Antonioni's "Blowup," but Scott Derrickson is unable to conjure an aura that isn't as transparent and weightless as a ghost. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 11, 2012
Sinister is basically a collection of bogus snuff films linked by standard haunted house tricks - everything creaking and slamming, with the power conveniently shut off. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 12, 2012
Pros and cons aside, Sinister has the benefit of arriving in the thick of Halloween season, right when movie-goers are most hungry for a few scares. And they'll get them from Derrickson's film, too. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 12, 2012
A twitchy Mr. Hawke builds a persuasive portrait of desperation with little help from the script and despite playing a character who makes so many mistakes he might as well be on a suicide mission. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsMiriam BaleOct 11, 2012
Ridiculous, and never scary, and with the worst ghost makeup in the history of the horror genre, Sinister is enjoyable, even funny at times. Most amusing might be watching Hawke play a character willing to do anything to regain his fame. Read full review
40
TimeMary PolsOct 11, 2012
The movie is full of feints, shocks and scenes of particularly perverse violence, but nothing about it is fresh enough to haunt you in the night. It's predictable. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 8, 2012
Throughout Sinister, the rooms remain darker than crypts, whether at breakfast or dinnertime, and the sound design causes everything in the house to moan and groan in consort with the hero's worrisome quest. I still can't decide what creaks the most: the floors, the doors, the walls, the dialogue, the acting, or the fatal boughs outside. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 4, 2012
The snuff-porn aesthetic might suggest a realist drama, but a supernatural dimension is brought into play, making the plot directionless. There isn't an ounce of ingenuity in the way the movie is concluded, but some generic expertise in the way it is put together. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 11, 2012
The hero of Sinister is almost unaccountably dumb. So, unfortunately, is the movie. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 14, 2012
Sinister did something I thought would be impossible: It made this lifelong horror freak abhor horror movies. Read full review
20
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiOct 10, 2012
Sinister is pretty much everything to hate about modern horror in one mixed bag, a ramshackle teardown of jump-scares and creaky tricks, saw-it-coming "surprises" and the lead-footed thud of inevitability as it tediously places one clumsy foot in front of the other, plodding towards a finale that comes far too late. Read full review
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