SXSW 2012: Scott Derrickson’s ‘Sinister’ is a Welcomed Discomfort

Sinister had just ended. A sense of unnerving rushed over the SXSW audience, at the film’s surprise secret premiere. At first, I didn’t think I like the film I had just seen, the R-rated, haunted house horror starring Ethan Hawke and co-written by C. Robert Cargill (aka AICN’s Massawyrm). I didn’t think I liked it. In hindsight, I realize it just upset me. Sinister is the kind of horror that hurts, a found footage film where you see the character who actually finds the footage. But this footage isn’t film students running through the woods or even a 9-foot tall demon bending people over backwards. This is snuff Hawke’s writer character is seeing, families who are meeting their end in horrific fashion, and horrific it is all the way through. Directed by Scott Derrickson – who also co-wrote with Cargill – Sinister opens with one of these films Hawke will later …