Sinister

A true-crime writer (Ethan Hawke) moves his family into the house where an entire family was murdered—except for one child who disappeared. In the attic, he finds a stash of home movies dating back to 1959, snuff films showing not only the murders in this house, but other families being slashed, torched and drowned. Writer-director Scott Derrickson does absolutely nothing right. His characters—especially Hawke’s—are incredibly stupid even by the rock-bottom standards of don’t-go-in-that-dark-room trash like this; his “supernatural” explanation stumbles into accidental self-parody; and he can’t muster any suspense or decent scares. He doesn’t even seem to know anything about the Super 8 movie format his nitwit plot hinges on. Hawke’s career bottoms out with a thud; it can only get better from here.