Sinister

True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt is in a slump; he hasn't had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims' home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.

Sinister earned a mixed-to-modestly-positive critical reception, with many reviewers acknowledging its genuinely unsettling atmosphere and Ethan Hawke's grounding performance while conceding it leans on familiar horror-movie contrivances. The sharpest fault line ran between those who found its lo-fi Super-8 footage sequences truly frightening and those who felt its reliance on outdated technology and cheap jump scares kept it from transcending the genre. Notably, a physiological study later named it the scariest film ever measured by audience heart rate, a popular verdict that sits well above what critics awarded it at release.