Sinister
Once you see him, nothing can save you.
Sinister (2012)
Production
Budget
$3 000 000
Revenue
$77 712 439
Director
Scenario
C. Robert Cargill
Composer
Producer
Actors
Ethan Hawke
Ellison Oswalt
Juliet Rylance
Tracy Oswalt
Vincent D'Onofrio
Professor Jonas
James Ransone
Deputy
Fred Thompson
Sheriff
Clare Foley
Ashley Oswalt
Michael Hall D'Addario
Trevor Oswalt
Victoria Leigh
Stephanie Stevenson
Short description
Ellison Oswalt is a true-crime writer whose books have stopped selling. Hoping to turn his fortunes around, he moves his wife and children into a house where the previous family died under unexplained circumstances, intending to investigate the case. Among the belongings left behind he finds old film reels that appear to record the murders of other families, and he begins piecing together who made them and why. The deeper he looks, the more he comes to suspect that something supernatural is involved and that his own household is now in danger.
Scott Derrickson directed and co-wrote the film with C. Robert Cargill. Released in 2012, it sits between The Day the Earth Stood Still and Deliver Us from Evil in Derrickson's filmography. Ethan Hawke plays Ellison, with Juliet Rylance as his wife Tracy, Vincent D'Onofrio as Professor Jonas, James Ransone as a deputy, and Clare Foley as his daughter Ashley. Jason Blum and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones produced.
Made for about 3 million dollars, the film took roughly 83 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. Audience response has been reasonably positive: it holds 6.9 out of 10 on TMDB across more than 6,000 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 6.3 out of 10 from 155 reviews, so viewers have rated it slightly higher than reviewers did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The 'deputy sheriff' character remains unnamed throughout the film and is simply credited as 'deputy sheriff' in the credits.
- The composition “Gyroscope” by the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada, used in some episodes of the film and in the credits, also appeared in the film “Sinister 2”.
- Each amateur film is divided into two parts. The first shows a family going about their everyday lives, and the second shows the demise of that same family at the hands of Bagul. The only amateur film that is an exception is "Sleep Time, 1998," which only shows the murder without any preceding scenes of people going about their business. Incidentally, the film "Sinister" also provides no indication that Oswalt's own family will be engaged in everyday activities before their demise is shown in "8 Super" format.
- The film contains very little blood, almost no profanity, and absolutely no explicit love scenes, because its creators hoped to receive a PG-13 rating from the American Film Association (viewers under 13 are only allowed to watch with parental guidance). To their disappointment, the film received an R rating (viewers under 17 are only allowed with a parent or legal guardian) solely based on its genre (crime, horror, thriller).
- Fictional characters similar to Bagul include Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s “It,” Mort from Rebecca McNutt’s “City of Smog,” Slender Man from the “Creepypasta” internet phenomenon, and the mysterious killer from Franck Thilliez’s “Syndrome E.”
- Bagul from the "Sinister" franchise is similar to Mert from Rebecca McNutt's novel "City of Smog" (International Standard Book Number 150246974X). Like Bagul, he films terrifying movies in the "8 Super" format, is also capable of moving from reality onto film, and travels via radio signals (this is mentioned in the novel's sequel titled "8 Super"). Mert also enjoys driving people insane and forcing them to commit terrible acts. The novel "City of Smog" was written in 2011, "Sinister" was released in 2012, and its sequel "Sinister 2" in 2015.
- The vibrant colors in the film inserts are due to “Kodachrome” film from Eastman Kodak (the K-14 developing process beautifully captures red, yellow, blue, and green colors and their shades). In the year the film was released (2012), “Kodachrome” film was discontinued, and the developing process became a thing of the past due to the dominance of digital technology in the market and the financial state of Kodak, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
- The filmmakers spent weeks online searching for the most ominous music to use as a soundtrack. Christopher Young wrote several musical themes to be used as background for the events unfolding on screen, and S. Robert Cargill purchased the rights to compositions by Ulver, JudgeHydrogen, and Boards of Canada. He believed that the unsettling and strange nature of their compositions was perfectly suited for use in 8 Super format films. Christopher Young’s soundtrack is available on a compact disc, although it does not include music by the other bands and artists. The soundtrack to “Sinister” has not yet been released on other media (vinyl or MP3).
- The English word “sinister” translates as “ominous,” but in Russian distribution, the film’s title was simply transliterated.
- Ethan Hawke, who played the writer in the film, is the author of the novels 'The Hottest State' (1996) and 'Ash Wednesday' (2002).
- As S. Robert Cargill later explained, the home footage shown in the film was shot on '8 Super' format cameras to convey the past, not-particularly-high-quality image of old amateur filmmaking.
- Bagul uses a “Bealeau” Super 8 camera model created by “Pro8mm” in the early 21st century (in fact, it is a slightly modified version of one of the previous models). Products from “Pro8mm” are often featured in films and music videos, celebrating the bygone era of film shooting with their appearance on screen. Eastman Kodak provided the film stock and projector.
- It was very difficult to film the amateur film titled “Pool Party, 1966,” S. Robert Cargill later recounted. The actors and actresses portraying the doomed family were tied to garden chairs and actually thrown into the water. The filmmakers constantly had to monitor the situation to ensure no one drowned during filming. New difficulties arose during the underwater shooting. Nicholas King, who played Bagul, was forced to attach weights under his clothes to stay submerged while being filmed. The filming was done using an 8 Super format camera, so it was necessary to ensure the film reel was inserted correctly and the light meter was set properly; otherwise, the entire scene had to be reshot.
- According to one of the scriptwriters, S. Robert Cargill, initially Bagul was intended to resemble Willy Wonka from Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (2005) as played by Johnny Depp. However, it was then decided that a deity resembling Willy Wonka would look 'silly and not scary or mysterious enough.' Finally, a suitable photograph was found on 'Google,' and Cargill purchased the rights to it. Bagul, as seen in the film, was created based on this image.
- The scorpion and snake shown in the attic represent Bagul, an ancient image of which Professor Jonas gives to Ellison.
- As one of the screenwriters, S. Robert Cargill, revealed, the name of the character played by Ethan Hawke is a combination of the names of science fiction writer Harlan Ellison and stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt.
- Amateur films in the “Super 8” format shown in “Sinister” have much in common with similar footage, the fashion for which emerged in the second half of the 20th century. The “Super 8” format, which appeared on the market in 1965, made amateur filmmaking simple and accessible to the average person. Unfortunately, this led to a huge number of amateur films, mostly fakes, which were presented as urban legends and even included in forbidden films like “Faces of Death” (1979). Amateur films capturing real murders rarely became public knowledge, as police often confiscated them as evidence. An amateur filmed the assassination of President Kennedy on a Super 8 camera. This footage saw the light of day and served as the basis for many documentary investigations and “conspiracy theories.” The films shown in “Sinister” were deliberately given the appearance of amateur footage from the 20th century for realism, leaving unanswered questions about who made the recordings.
- The role of the sheriff was played by Fred Dalton Thompson, a former Republican representative and Senator from Tennessee (1994-2003), as well as a former Republican primary candidate before the 2008 presidential election.
- The film features a kingsnake (a genus of snakes from the family Colubridae, comprising 14 species). This snake is non-venomous, as indicated by the children’s rhyme, “Red and yellow, kill a fellow; black and red, safe in bed.”
- The clothing and hairstyles of the “missing” children correspond to the period when their families perished. This applies to the yellow raincoat of the girl on the lawn, the t-shirt the boy is wearing, and so on.
- The idea for the film originated from a nightmare that S. Robert Cargill had after watching Gore Verbinski's "The Ring (2002)", a remake of the Japanese horror film of the same name. Both the remake and the original were financed by producer Takashi Ito, whose first box office success was the 1988 film "Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis" about a demon who hypnotized and kidnapped innocent people.
- Before filming 'Sinister,' Ethan Hawke had not watched any films (pornographic or simply promoting violence) that ended with the real murder of one of the actors. When everything was ready to record the scene where his character watches such films, the sound was synchronized with the footage, and Hawke played his role. His reaction to what he saw was also filmed and used in 'Sinister.'
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