3. Sinister
On the tin it says its from the makers of Insidious and Paranormal Activity, although it fails to mention that is Paranormal Activity 4. However, that little grouch aside, Sinister is just that. The story is the simple, well ploughed tale of a writer moving into a house with his family where other families have been killed. Nothing new there, but as with many things, after over a hundred years of moving pictures its extremely difficult for anyone to come up with an idea that is unique when it is stripped to its bones. How the story is built up is what matters. The discovery of a box of old home movies that seem to have belonged to all the dead families to have lived in the house, all of which include the appearance of a dark and creepy figure, leads to the awakening of the evil residing in the house and it becomes a fight against time for anyone to get out alive. The films main success is based on the blurry, barely seen images of the eerie killer that makes sure he adheres to the rules of Horror 101 in not revealing the villain in all their glory too early in the film. Remember Sadako in Ringu? The same creepy quality is here in Sinister. A villain who looks a bit like a demonic incarnation of the Jigsaw Doll from Saw, murdered kids, a whole family being seen to hanged by ropes attached to a falling tree branchfor any horror fan, this is the film to see this Halloween before a churned mulch of sequels follow.