10 MORE Horror Movies Where The Hero ALMOST Won

2. Sinister

Hats off to Sinister director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill, for haunted technology has always been a little silly in concept. Here, however, they managed to deliver one of the most nightmare-inducing scare films of that decade, coupled with a doom-laden finale that had victory so close, yet… well, actually not close at all.

Failing true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves his unsuspecting family into a house where a massacre took place, hoping to research and create his next best-seller. Things get weird and complicated from there, but essentially, it’s all the result of an entity named Bughuul, who has a history of orchestrating the murders of families and recording them via Super 8 footage.

The reveal is quite convoluted and head-scratching, but the power of Sinister lies in how everything is slowly unveiled. Unfortunately, Hawke’s character takes far too long to say, “Enough is enough - we’re getting out of here.”

The plot twist, though, is that just by moving into the house, their fate was sealed. As they escape to a new location in the final moments, the last stage of the haunting is set. Typically, the youngest child becomes a puppet for the spirit and kills their family in over-elaborate ways.

Everyone’s demise comes at the hands of the youngest daughter, who poisons and axes them before being whisked away by Baghuul. Moments before his death, Ellison finally pieces everything together, but it’s too little, too late.