R_Hythlodeus
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You know, because the director of this movie needs his own thread.
The Derrickson Thread - Deliver Us The Strange
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Keyser Soze
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Here's the review of Scott Derrickson's SINISTER I wrote a while back:
SINISTER is a film that flutters frustratingly close to greatness. When it's at its best, it hovers at 4-star territory or higher. But a few problematic elements sadly drag it down a little bit.
But I don't want to frame this as a negative review, as there's so much to like here. Scott Derrickson, writer/director of another decent horror film, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, once again gives us a horror built on atmosphere and dread. Ethan Hawke's fading writer moves his family into a murder house without their knowledge hoping to get unique insight into what he plans to be his comeback book, but the discovery of some horrific home movies in the attic leads to him getting much more of an insight than he may have wanted. It's these sequences where Ethan Hawke is sat in a darkened room, watching the video reels of gruesome murders, that are the film's black heartbeat. The grainy Super 8 footage gives the killings an uneasy air of authenticity, and when we get momentary flashes of the monstrous in the old recordings, it gets under the skin in the way a glossily-presented ghoul might not. We're placed in the protagonist's shoes, peering forward on the edge of our seats into the laptop monitor as images are paused and zoomed in on, our hearts in our mouths. It's immersive, and some of the scariest stuff I've seen in a horror in ages.
Kudos also go to Ethan Hawke. He's not someone I'm often a fan of, but he does well here. While protagonists in haunted house movies are often just stupid and reckless because the script demands them to be so, Ellison's disregard for his family's well-being feels less like clumsy writing and more like a character being written as compellingly, believably flawed, his refusal to leave a house where creepy **** is most certainly going on influenced by obsession and self-regard. However, the wife - played by Juliet Rylance - is a pretty poorly executed character. The writing and performance alike are erratic, and contrived in all the ways that Ethan Hawke's Ellison is convincing and natural. She flips back and forth from being unreasonably angry at her husband's choice of career to being all warm and affectionate, seemingly on a scene-by-scene basis.
If SINISTER has a downfall, it's in trying to be too many things at once. You could have made a quietly terrifying film about the discovery of a serial killer's collection of recordings of his victims, with the growing realisation that our hero's family is next on the chopping block, and it would have been great. But then Derrickson also feels the need to throw in ghost children and a supernatural boogeyman figure to allow him to fall back on the easier, more obvious "walking around in the dark because you heard a noise" set-pieces. And while these certainly result in some jolts that will pop you out of your seat, it feels like a much cheaper way of getting scares than the more atmospheric stuff done with the home movies. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE had a similar problem, where it worked perfectly well as a courtroom drama that had sequences of demonic horror in flashback - where we had to decide if they were delusion, fabrication or the terrifying truth - but then Derrickson also had to throw in demonic goings-on into the present day. It suggests a distrust in the viewer to invest in the horror as is, so all this easy, more immediate horror has to be pumped in on top to play to the cheap seats. It might result in more "BOO! GOTCHA!" moments for the trailer reel, but it hurts the integrity of the story.
Ultimately, the ending underwhelms, which is a shame given the great build-up. But in spite of the weaker areas, I can't call this film a near-miss. Because the stuff that does work is executed so well, and there's more than enough to linger in the mind long after you've done watching. One of the better mainstream American horror films of the past few years.
***1/2 out of *****
SINISTER is a film that flutters frustratingly close to greatness. When it's at its best, it hovers at 4-star territory or higher. But a few problematic elements sadly drag it down a little bit.
But I don't want to frame this as a negative review, as there's so much to like here. Scott Derrickson, writer/director of another decent horror film, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, once again gives us a horror built on atmosphere and dread. Ethan Hawke's fading writer moves his family into a murder house without their knowledge hoping to get unique insight into what he plans to be his comeback book, but the discovery of some horrific home movies in the attic leads to him getting much more of an insight than he may have wanted. It's these sequences where Ethan Hawke is sat in a darkened room, watching the video reels of gruesome murders, that are the film's black heartbeat. The grainy Super 8 footage gives the killings an uneasy air of authenticity, and when we get momentary flashes of the monstrous in the old recordings, it gets under the skin in the way a glossily-presented ghoul might not. We're placed in the protagonist's shoes, peering forward on the edge of our seats into the laptop monitor as images are paused and zoomed in on, our hearts in our mouths. It's immersive, and some of the scariest stuff I've seen in a horror in ages.
Kudos also go to Ethan Hawke. He's not someone I'm often a fan of, but he does well here. While protagonists in haunted house movies are often just stupid and reckless because the script demands them to be so, Ellison's disregard for his family's well-being feels less like clumsy writing and more like a character being written as compellingly, believably flawed, his refusal to leave a house where creepy **** is most certainly going on influenced by obsession and self-regard. However, the wife - played by Juliet Rylance - is a pretty poorly executed character. The writing and performance alike are erratic, and contrived in all the ways that Ethan Hawke's Ellison is convincing and natural. She flips back and forth from being unreasonably angry at her husband's choice of career to being all warm and affectionate, seemingly on a scene-by-scene basis.
If SINISTER has a downfall, it's in trying to be too many things at once. You could have made a quietly terrifying film about the discovery of a serial killer's collection of recordings of his victims, with the growing realisation that our hero's family is next on the chopping block, and it would have been great. But then Derrickson also feels the need to throw in ghost children and a supernatural boogeyman figure to allow him to fall back on the easier, more obvious "walking around in the dark because you heard a noise" set-pieces. And while these certainly result in some jolts that will pop you out of your seat, it feels like a much cheaper way of getting scares than the more atmospheric stuff done with the home movies. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE had a similar problem, where it worked perfectly well as a courtroom drama that had sequences of demonic horror in flashback - where we had to decide if they were delusion, fabrication or the terrifying truth - but then Derrickson also had to throw in demonic goings-on into the present day. It suggests a distrust in the viewer to invest in the horror as is, so all this easy, more immediate horror has to be pumped in on top to play to the cheap seats. It might result in more "BOO! GOTCHA!" moments for the trailer reel, but it hurts the integrity of the story.
Ultimately, the ending underwhelms, which is a shame given the great build-up. But in spite of the weaker areas, I can't call this film a near-miss. Because the stuff that does work is executed so well, and there's more than enough to linger in the mind long after you've done watching. One of the better mainstream American horror films of the past few years.
***1/2 out of *****
Keyser Soze
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Scott Derrickson has been sporadically posting images from Doctor Strange comics on his Twitter feed. Perhaps some clues on some of the influences and inspirations the film will draw from?
It seems to me that it's Derrickson's way of getting his Twitter followers excited than a means to show what Doctor Strange comics are going to have the most influence on the movie. However, what is intriguing is that it seems like, judging by a few pictures that have been taken recently, the scouting processes for scenery is under way.
R_Hythlodeus
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from his twitter account:
Scott Derrickson
‏@scottderrickson best new tree ornament
R_Hythlodeus
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I just rewatched the TDTESS remake and I realized underneath all the dreadful acting and a script that was probably written with crayons there are a couple of very solid directing decisions
Xeno
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I wasn't sure about Derrickson until I saw Sinister, which is a truly unsettling film. Most recent horror films have left me laughing when they end, but Sinister actually rattled me. The visuals provided the sort of off-kilter feel that Doctor Strange needs. Derrickson could be the right director to bring Strange's horror-tinged, mystical world to life on screen.
Dr.
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Not to all tastes - just FYI. A longish/in-depth podcast interview with Scott Derrickson. Conducted by… Cal Tech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll. 
Episode 20: Scott Derrickson on Cinema, Blockbusters, Horror, and Mystery - Sean Carroll
Episode 20: Scott Derrickson on Cinema, Blockbusters, Horror, and Mystery - Sean Carroll
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