8/12/2019 Sinister Horror Clichs ETHAN HAWKE PAGAR SUAS CONTAS

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Sinister Horror Clichs

Byjsomers| August 14, 2013 |0 Comments

Family Hanging Out in Sinister

Whenever The Duchess is out of town I do three things: I order a palette of cheeses, I

make sure I have several gallons of grain alcohol on hand, and I watch awful movies.

The cheese and the alcohol are for sustenance. The movies are to scratch the itch I havefor awesome terribleness, the kind you can only get from low-rent horror movies and

insane Sci-Fi epics. On a tangential note, my spellcheck is not complaining about

terribleness which just feels wrong. Really, thats a word? Holy shit.

Anyway

Just recently I watched Sinister, unexpectedly starring Ethan Hawke. Hard to believe

there was once a time when Hawke was considered a sex symbol and something of a

rising star in Hollywood, though he does have a natural presence on screen still, and as

he ages out of his epic self-regard phase he might have a future. To see him in a lowball

horror flick is kind of startling, though, but just like his character in the film hes gotbills to pay, I assume. His character is a writer, but at least the movie avoids many of

the odious writer clichs that other films give in to: While its imagined that his first

books was massive bestseller and that hes still living off of those proceeds, hes also a

writer whos second and third books were failures and hes got one last option book to

try and turn the ship around. And he cant afford the mortgage on his big house any

more. So its slightly more realistic than your average movie when it comes to writers.

Anyway, Im not here to really complain about that. Nor am I here to review the film,

except to say that it was entertaining, slightly more interesting and well-done than most,

and if it was riddled with boring pop-ups and cheesy horror-esque moments, the Super 8

home movies of family mass murders were incredibly frightening, and the whole film

does manage to generate an atmosphere of dread that few horror films manage. Hawkes

pretty good in it, and the sound editor should have won an Oscar.

But Im not here to praise Sinister. Im here to complain about the two mostgrating

movie stupid clichs currently in my wheelhouse: The Idiot Note and The Anti-Light

Sleeper.

The Idiot Note

Heres the scene youve seen it. Character is researching something. A crime, lets say

a murder. Character takes out a crisp legal pad and a nice pen, and starts

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8/12/2019 Sinister Horror Clichs ETHAN HAWKE PAGAR SUAS CONTAS

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reading/watching/examining something. Then they pause to jot a note. What do they

write? WHO IS THE MURDERER?

Seriously.

You see this all the time, characters making notes that no one, in the history of ever, haseven been stupid enough to actually write. When youre taking notes you dont jot down

wide-open rhetorical questions like that. You jot down details you want to remember,

and more complex thoughts as a way of organizing them. You dont write shit like

WHO HAD A MOTIVE??? as if its helpful in any way. Sinisterdidnt invent that shit,

but its the most recent movie Ive seen use it. The worst part is it doesnt even serve the

interests of the idiots in the audience, like a lot of these idiot clichs do. It literally

serves no purpose.

The Anti-Light Sleeper

The ALS is more of a horror-specific problem, and its simple: You have a family or agroup of people in a haunted or otherwise horrific place. They go to bed. The ghouls

come out and one of themthe protagonist, usually, but not alwaysspends fifteen

minutes stumbling around screaming, knocking shit over, and generally battling the

forces of evil.

And no oneNO ONEwakes up. At least not until the episode is over.

Sinisterhits this one hard. Hawke has several extended sequences where he screams,

runs around the house, knocks shit over, and generally makes more noise than an

elephant in gastrointestinal distress, but his wife and kids just sleep through it all. In my

house a kitten on the first floor wakes us up on the third floor when it jumps onto thekitchen table. If I was battling demons in the living room, friends, The Duchess would

be out of bed like a bat out of hell in seconds.

That felt good. Complaining always does. I enjoyed Sinister, to be honest, although it

wasnt anything revolutionary but sometimes solid craft and a few creepy ideas is all

it takes. I just hope it means Ethan Hawke will be able to pay his bills through horror

movies and wont have to resort to more novel-writin.

Categories:Deep Thoughts & Pronouncements

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