You’ve heard the story a million times: Family murdered, home available for cheap, shortly thereafter inhabited by temporarily non-murdered family. So why does Sinister, from The Exorcism of Emily Rose director and the producer of Insidious and Paranormal Activity, look so sweet? Is it the convincingly terrified, non-horror-movie-ish vibe we’re getting from Ethan Hawke’s performance? Is it the starring presence of pagan demon Bagul (bagel, no; buh-ghoul, yes), who, despite his by-the-books consumption of the souls of human children, seems capable of terrifying even the most jaded scare-seeking moviegoers into total screeching insanity? Probably.
