Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: 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. It's predictable. Read more
Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Sinister' may make you jump at predictable intervals, but it never rattles your existential certainties the way truly subversive horror does. Read more
Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: That title is off the mark. Here's a better one: "Stupid." Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Now this is a scary movie. And, given that it's a horror film, that means it's a good one. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: As much as "Sinister" wants to tell a story, there isn't much of a story to be told. Read more
Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: [Director Scott Derrickson finds] new ways to frame the same rooms from one scene to the next and providing comic relief whenever the action threatens to turn monotonously grim. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: I knew perfectly well, after a while, what Sinister was going to scare me with. But I got scared anyway. Read more
Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Your pants. Do you like having them scared off you? Then you and your pants will enjoy Sinister. Read more
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Enjoyably edgy fright flick meshes serial-killer and haunted house ingredients. Read more
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: As the best horror stories so often do, "Sinister" makes clear that we are our own boogeymen, the worst monsters of all. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Despite some effective bumps and frights, and at least one memorable jolt from a full-throated D'Addario, "Sinister" is mainly just a series of snuff-reels with sick-joke titles ... Read more
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Sinister is a joyless ride, and its frights are too contrived to be surprising, yet somewhere, stashed in the attic, is a much less foolish film with Hawke at its heart. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's something smarter, and truly creepy-crawly, about the way this movie sneaks up on your ears. Read more
Miriam Bale, New York Daily News: In its plot and even its title, the movie feels like a grab bag of every popular horror trope of the last 30 years. Read more
Sara Stewart, New York Post: C'mon, Ethan Hawke, you're better than this. Isn't there a "Before Sunset" sequel that needs your attention? Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In true horror movie tradition, characters do things that are head-scratchingly dumb. Once you accept those logic-defying moments, the movie works with diabolical effectiveness. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Sinister" is an undeniably scary movie, with performances adding enough human interest to give depth to the basic building blocks of horror. Read more
Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It comes together with a gruesome though excellent ending that some will find difficult to shake. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A mixed bag of old-school and contemporary horror tricks that occasionally raises a hair prickle of intrigue. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: More stupid than scary, Sinister can't even figure out who its real demon is. Read more
Trevor Johnston, Time Out: This so-so, occasionally effective horror film combines found-footage creepiness and haunted-house scares - but is stronger on mood than story. Read more
Peter Debruge, Variety: The scares are not just intense but unyielding in this compelling horror yarn from The Exorcism of Emily Rose director Scott Derrickson. Read more
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: A proficient, rattling horror story. Read more
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The hero of "Sinister" is almost unaccountably dumb. So, unfortunately, is the movie. Read more