‘Sinister’ not so threatening

 
Despite it’s title, “Sinister” the latest “must-see” thriller failed to provoke fear and lacked shock value.
The main character, Ellison Oswalt, (Ethan Hawke) began to write for the love of literature, passion for to solve crimes and to bring justice to victims.
 After he began to thoroughly enjoy the success from the first book, Ellison never truly regained the notoriety in his following books.
Once Ellison started his new book, he moved his family to a quaint town, into a house where an unsolved family murder occurred that left four of the five members dead and a child missing.
Promising his wife Tracy, (Juliet Rylance) they had not moved near another house where tragedy struck.
He hid the fact that they didn’t just move near the house, in fact, moved into the house where the murders took place to make his book’s research easier. 
Arrogant and unwilling to adhere to his family’s plea to return to their home, Ellison began research in the house for his book. 
Unknowingly, Oswalt uncovered secrets that put him and his family in serious danger. 
He found a box of old ‘Super 8 films’ and a projector with ‘Home Movies’ dated back to the 60’s, with deceiving names such as ‘Pool Party, Lawn Work and Family BBQ’, only to reveal that the names described something much worse. 
The films turned out to be actual recordings of the brutal murders of families on tape, each leaving one young child missing.
Still chasing his fifteen minutes of fame, Ellison decided to watch each movie by himself, one by one, and some he watched more than once.
His children began to show signs of trouble.  His son began to have horrible night terrors about the murders, his daughter began to see things and his son began to see things of an unworldly nature.
Oswalt’s daughter revealed to her mother that this was the house that the family was killed in and that she had seen the missing daughter in the house. 
Shocked, Tracy confronts Ellison about moving in the house only to be told that, “They didn’t die in the house, it happened in the back yard.” 
After nights of no sleep because of the night terrors, Ellison had been experiencing.
The terrors left his son in an unusual place in the middle of the night, Ellison sucks up his pride and moved his family back to their old home.
He discovers a shocking connection to all of the murders in his research. 
Lastly, he found an extended cut reel that mysteriously appeared, which showed what happened to all of the missing children and who was the culprit in all of the murders.
Overall, the movie was lacking in torment and shock value. 
The movie is a basic overshadow of a chain letter movie.
The plot was generic and lacked fear provoking elements.
Honestly, this movie was a let down.