English Dept.
Sinister is, ostensibly, an occult crime story. It is set in Pennsylvania, where I come from, though not in a real place in Pennsylvania; but I find it to be a taut, muscular, visceral fright fest. It requires no deep thinking or excavation. It is a scary, scary movie, perfect vintage Blumhouse at the height of its ethos and power: spend a very small amount of money and maximize every dollar's worth of scare.
I chose THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE because it's a film that I return to again and again. It's really well cast. It's a procedural, it's a legal drama, and it's a horror movie. It has a strong female protagonist in Laura Linney's character and an unhinged performance by Jennifer Carpenter in the central role of Emily Rose. And I think it's an interesting story in that it's about transformation and redemption for both of those characters.
