Featured Image Credit: Lionsgate
Topics: Horror, Film and TV
Michael Slavin
The scariest horror films, in my opinion, all have the ability to make you feel one thing.
That the terrifying, awful monsters in that film are real.
In some situations, like when its inspired by a real-life crime, that is easier than others.
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But for a horror movie to make you feel like you’re genuinely at risk with no connections to real people – that takes a truly terrifying film.
That is exactly what one horror fan found, saying that bits of the film are so disturbing – it can make you feel like you’re watching a ‘legitimate snuff film’.
Here’s the trailer:
The film in question is Sinister, a 2012 horror starring Ethan Hawke that was even declared the scariest film according to science.
The movie was directed by Scott Derrickson, the man who would later go on to direct Doctor Strange and The Black Phone.
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It follows a crime writer, played by Hawke, who discovers that the grisly murders he is researching for his next book could actually be the work of a serial killer with a long list of murders.
The film was an answer to a post in the subreddit r/horror, asking what people thought was the scariest film of all time.
One fan commented: “Sinister’s found footage scenes have the scariest soundtrack I’ve ever heard in any movie.
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“Just these disturbing filtered grainy moans over the crackle of static really hits a nerve unlike anything I’ve ever heard.
“That combined with the disturbing nature of the found footage tapes depicting families being murdered in brutal gory ways actually makes you think you’re watching legitimate snuff films cursed by some demon which I guess is the point.
“There’s a lot of other horror movies I love but none of them come close to building up a level of dread as palpable and ever present as those do.”
Roger Ebert, the legendary film critic, reviewed the film in 2012 just a year prior to his death, where he gave it three out of four stars and said: “"Sinister" is an undeniably scary movie, with performances adding enough human interest to give depth to the basic building blocks of horror.”
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Peter Dubrage from Variety said of the film: “The scares are not just intense but unyielding in this compelling horror yarn from The Exorcism of Emily Rose director Scott Derrickson.”
One review on IMDb called it ‘the scariest film’ they’ve ‘ever seen’, saying:
“This film is probably the scariest film I have ever seen.
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“It brings everything that a good horror film should bring to the table. Jump scares, disturbing imagery, haunting music.
“The use of the recorded murders is especially terrifying. The story never has a dull moment and provides many good twists along the way.
“The lack of music during the filmed murders is especially chilling.”