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Sinister Compare and Contrast

1) The document summarizes and compares the reviews of the horror film "Sinister" by two critics, Mary Pols and Sara Stewart. 2) While both agree the film was not as scary as it aimed to be and lacked originality, they diverged on their views of the graphic "Super 8 footage" in the film - Pols found it embarrassing while Stewart thought it was the most disturbing element. 3) They also disagreed on how the audience would react - Pols thought it too predictable to haunt viewers but Stewart felt there were moments that would make audiences jump.

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98 views5 pages

Sinister Compare and Contrast

1) The document summarizes and compares the reviews of the horror film "Sinister" by two critics, Mary Pols and Sara Stewart. 2) While both agree the film was not as scary as it aimed to be and lacked originality, they diverged on their views of the graphic "Super 8 footage" in the film - Pols found it embarrassing while Stewart thought it was the most disturbing element. 3) They also disagreed on how the audience would react - Pols thought it too predictable to haunt viewers but Stewart felt there were moments that would make audiences jump.

Uploaded by

kbs10296
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Shields 1

Kayla Shields
Mr.Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
22 October 2014
Sinister: A Thriller or a Disappointment?

Horror films are the basis of every teenagers weekend, the motivation to leave their
house and be social with their friends. Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson provides its viewers
with a masked demon, ghostly children and footage of each family's tragic death. Ellison Oswalt,
the movies leading character, writes horror novels thus why he moved his family to a town
overcoming a tragic event. The home he has moved his family to use to house a family who was
found hanging from their back yard tree, all except the youngest child. Not only is the town
curious about the family's death, they also are unsure of where the missing child is. Trouble
arises as Oswalt begins to watch each individual family's tragic murders. As the movie
continues, Oswalts family begins to face supernatural challenges. With the help of a college
professor, Ellison learns that there is a likely chance that Baghuul (Sinister) is the cause of the
deaths. The professors theory reigns to be true as the Oswald family is struck with the terror that
is Sinister. The overall outcome for the family is tragic. Although Mary Pols and Sara Stewart
agree that Sinister was not the greatest horror film to ever be made, their views begin to contrast
as they go into depth on the movies use of tragic footage and how they believe the audience
would be affected by the film.

Mary Pols and Sara Stewart both agree that although the movie was intended to be scary,
it did not reach its full potential. As the movie progressed, each critic found the film to be the
same as all other horror films. Parts of the movie were said to be tedious, gratuitous and a

Shields 2

number of other supercilious-sounding adjectives (Pols). The film laced the depth that horror
movies need to reach. Stewart states that the repetitive actions of the lead character is creepy the
first couple of times, and irritating the next 10. Pols found that the story line lacked anything
new from previous horror films. Stewart noted that Ethan Hawke taking the role of Ellison was
below himself. Overall, both Pols and Stewart found that the movie did not reach the level of
suspense it was aiming for.

While it was noticeable that both reviewers agreed on many aspects of the movie, there
were a few differences in their opinions on the horror film. Throughout the film, footage is
shown of individual families facing gruesome deaths; from one family being burnt to death in
their car to another showing the family being drowned in their pool, each Super 8 film had its
own wicked twist. As both authors reviewed this aspect of the movie, their opinions began to
diverge. Pols finds the footage to be almost embarrassing, an over the top way to get the
audience to jump. She states, Filmed images begetting more violence would seem a way to
subvert the horror genre, except theyre presented almost as pornography. Sara Stewart,
however, thought the graphic horror clips were by far the most daunting part of the movie.
Heres the thing: Found footage is scary when because it leaves you to fill in a lot of the
blanks yourself (Stewart). Seeing such vivid visuals of people being murdered provided the
movie with scary aspects. In sum, while seeing gruesome deaths gives some a fight, causing
them to jump in their seat and scream, it leaves others bored and ready for something new.

While both reviewers noted that personally the film had little effect on themselves, their
opinions conflicted when talking about how the audience would feel seeing the movie. Each

Shields 3

horror film has its own unique ways that to try and scare its audience. Whether its a creepy doll,
slow walking zombies or a masked murderer, the producers want to leave as much of an
impression as possible on their audience. Sara Stewart recognizes that the movie has its
moments, the moments where your heart stops and you duck behind the unlucky person sitting
next to you Stewart mentions Credit where credit is due: The wailing, old-timey music that
filters through the film, especially over flickering Super 8 images, is deeply unsettling, and
youll (be forced to) jump in your chair a number of times. The eerie effects of the music add to
the disturbing factors, in Stewart's opinion, along with the fact that the demon is creepy.On the
other hand, Mary Pols believes that the movie is subpar to other horror films and doesn't qualify
as something scary. As she talked about the movie she states The movie is full of feints, shocks
and scenes of particularly perverse violence, but nothing about it is fresh enough to haunt you in
the night. Its predictable. Nothing throughout the movie left her feeling that anyone would
truly feel scared by the movie. Scott Derricksons much-heralded horror film Sinister is
unlikely to leave you sleepless. At least it didnt me, and Im a total wimp. All in all, neither
reviewer seen eye to eye when considering how the audience would react to Sinister.

In general, Mary Pols and Sara Stewart lacked enthusiasm after seeing Sinister, directed
by Scott Derrickson, stating that the movie was no different than any prior horror film. Sinister
fails to open the doors to new and inventive ways to scare its intended audience. Although Pols
believes the Super 8 footage provided nothing to the movie, Stewart though the disturbing videos
added exactly what the movie needed. Also, whereas Pols thought that the audience would be
unimpressed with the film, Stewart believed that there were moments in the movie that would

Shields 4

indeed scare the movie. To those who live for scary movies, Sinister may not be the film for you,
however, different aspects of the movie will make those who are not horror fanatics jump.

Works Cited
Pols, Mary. "Just How Scary Is Sinister?" Entertainment.time. Time, 11 Oct.
2012. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Stewart, Sara. "There's Nothing Shining Here." Nypost. Holdings, 12 Oct. 2012.

Shields 5

Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

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