ONCE YOU SEE HIM, NOTHING CAN SAVE YOU.

True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) moves his wife (Juliet Rylance) and children to a rural house to work on his next book… without telling them that the last owners, a family, were brutally murdered there.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) director returns with another horror movie, and this is an improvement.

The story about spooky goings-on in a house that harbors clues to several grisly murders hidden in a box of super 8 films may not exactly be shockingly novel, but benefits from a strong lead performance and an eerie atmosphere that stays there right up to a very unsettling finale.

2012-U.S. 110 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Scott Derrickson. Screenplay: C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson. Cast: Ethan Hawke (Ellison Oswalt), Juliet Rylance (Tracy Oswalt), Fred Dalton Thompson (Sheriff), James Ransone, Michael Hall D’Addario, Clare Foley. Cameo: Vincent D’Onofrio.

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Derrickson. Followed by Sinister 2 (2015).