Sinister is a American supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson , and written by C. Robert Cargill and Derrickson. It stars Ethan Hawke as a struggling true-crime writer whose discovery of snuff films depicting gruesome murders and strange supernatural elements in his new house puts his family in danger.
Sinister was inspired by a nightmare Cargill had after watching the film The Ring. It has since developed a reputation for scariness and is considered a cult classic. A study by Broadband Choices named Sinister the scariest film ever made, based on an analysis of viewer heart rates.
True crime writer Ellison Oswalt moves into a home in the town of Chatford, Pennsylvania , with his wife Tracy, their son Trevor, and daughter Ashley. Ellison's first book was wildly successful when he discovered new evidence which led to the capture of the perpetrator, but his subsequent works were flops, leaving the family in a precarious financial position. Unbeknownst to his wife and children, their new home is the site of the gruesome murder by hanging of the previous owners, the Stevenson family.
Ellison's new project is about the family's murders and the disappearance of the youngest child, year-old Stephanie Stevenson. In the attic, Ellison finds a box containing a scorpion , a projector and reels of Super 8 film labeled as home movies. The films are footage of different families being murdered in various ways: drowned in a pool Pool Party '66 , burned to death in a car BBQ '79 , run over by a lawn mower Lawn Work '86 , having their throats slit in their beds Sleepy Time '98 , and the hanging of the Stevensons Family Hanging Out ' The killings seem to be done by the camera operator.
Ellison is torn between turning the videos over to the police and the tantalizing realization that he may have uncovered the heretofore unknown existence of a serial killer and what that would mean for his new book.
