Sinister Review

An establishing shot is used to show where the film is going to take place and insinuate that it is an important part of the film. The shot uses low key lighting to show that it is a dangerous place and sets the scary feel for the rest of the trailer. The darkness connotes evil so the audience will now associate the house with evil.

Establishing shot of the house in the dark

Fast paced editing is used to disturb the audience as it flashes on the screen in between the establishing shot. It is a symbol and connotes evil or the devil, which shows that the film is scary and has an evil presence in the house.

Disturbing images of a family are shown in an order that allows the audience to quickly understand what happened to them. The red ring around the girl shows that she has been chosen by the devil. The red shows blood which shows death and pain. The next picture is the child’s drawing of her family being hung. This shows that she is either planning to kill them or already has. The contrast of the child and murder shows that the film may be quite disturbing and isn’t normal. The last picture is of the family’s legs on the ground, insinuating that they are dead. Throughout the montage of the pictures the flash of evil is used, which shows that it is controlling the girl. A voice over is on talking about the murder of a family showing that it is in the past and foreshadowing what is going to happen to the new family that move in. It also confirms the audience’s idea of a murder within the family

There is a montage of the new family moving in to make the audience feel sympathy because they’re talking about making a new start and how happy their lives in the new house will be. This is a key convention of a horror film because to find the film more scary you have to like the characters and want the best from them. By showing that the house is dangerous at the start the audience know that something bad is going to happen to the family and want to carry on watching to find out. The non diegetic music used is eerie, indicating that their thoughts for the future isn’t right and they will be hurt in some way.

The dad goes into the loft to find a solitary box in the middle. The lighting is low key to show that this box is dangerous or evil. After the box is shown it says some well known films that are produced by the same people. They are horror films too so reinforce the genre to the audience. He finds old family films in the box and watches them in a dark room which indicates that something bad is going to happen whilst he is watching them. The family videos show a normal family which would make the audience think that something could happen to the new family. A quick flash of the family dead cuts the happy images up and the dad jumps up, scared, and switches it off. The fast paced editing of this bit builds tension up to the part where a lightning strike sound comes on and the dead family are shown.

The dad finds the the pagan symbol, which has connotations of evil and horror so shows that something bad is going to happen to the characters. He finds out that the symbol means that the pagan deity which takes over the souls of children. The innocence of the children make it scary because they are vulnerable. It is a key component for a horror film because it gives the evil character a sense of power.

He looks at old images of the deity in pictures. The face is distorted which is a key convention of horror movies because the unknown is scary. He holds the picture up to where it was taken in his garden and as he takes it downs there is a loud crashing ambient sound and he is stood there.

This shows that something bad is going to happen because he has returned.

When the characters know that they are in danger a fast paced montage is shown to quickly show the audience what sort of things happen to the family. Throughout it there is screechy music and screaming from the child to cause tension and fear.