What To Watch If You Love 'Sinister'

The Autopsy of Jane Doe, from director André Øvredal (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Trollhunter), is another film with no happy ending. Small town coroner Tommy (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch) are brought a curious Jane Doe, and told by the local sheriff that a cause of death needed to be determined by morning. The father-son team quickly realize this is not going to be an ordinary autopsy, as they struggle to understand the evidence the body is presenting them. 

The Lodge comes from directing duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, who were also responsible for the original Goodnight Mommy film in 2014. The beginning is heavy, and it only gets bleaker from there. The film follows Grace (Riley Keough), who ends up trapped in a remote cabin with her new fiancé's two children, as their father is off at work. Strange things start happening, and Grace begins to wonder if something supernatural is happening, or if she is losing her mind.

The Empty Man, like Sinister, features a kind of curse that can be set into motion by its victims. The Empty Man can be summoned when you blow into an empty bottle on a bridge, and think of local legend, “The Empty Man.” In Sinister, more real estate is involved, but the endings to both are horrifying and bleak. Both horror films have treacherous plans that, once set in motion, cannot be stopped by anyone.

Oculus, from beloved horror writer/director Mike Flanagan, is as mind-bending as it is dark. It follows siblings Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) as their family suffers tragedies in 2002 and 2013. Kaylie believes all of the bad things that happened to them were because of an antique mirror their father kept in his office, and sets out to document the mirror’s strange powers. It does not go well.

Gore Verbinski's The Ring - an American remake of the J-horror film by Hideo Nakata, called Ringu - feels like a good double feature for Sinister for a few reasons, deeply disturbing (and haunted) video tapes, scary children, and an overwhelming feeling of dread and hopelessness. Both are bathed in shades of greens and blues, dark lighting, symbolizing death and decay. They both also have pretty bleak endings.

Adapted from Nick Antosca's short story The Quiet Boy, Antlers pulls no punches, and no one is safe. Keri Russell stars as Julia Meadows, a school teacher worried about her young student, Lucas Weaver (Jeremy T. Thomas), who is clearly having some kind of trouble at home. Of course, she certainly did not expect the trouble to be a cannibalistic deer-like monster from legend, called a wendigo. It's bleak from the beginning, and the slow burn continues to an unforgettable conclusion. The performance by Thomas is heartbreakingly brilliant.

The unflinching dread and bleakness of Smile is what makes it a good double feature with Sinister. Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a therapist in a psychiatric ward with her own traumatic backstory. One brutal day she sees a grad student patient complete suicide right in front of her, and things spiral downhill from there. It gets bleaker and bleaker until its fiery conclusion. 

A patriarch who is a troubled writer, scared children, seemingly possessed children, and haunted locales are just a few of the themes Sinister shares with Stanley Kubrick classic, The Shining. Of course, in one movie the father is trying to solve a family's murder, while the other shows a man trying to commit his family's murder. Stephen King may not have loved Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, but it is one of the most beloved films in the genre, and features outstanding performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. 

Hush, from husband-wife duo Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel, asks the question, can the final girl make it to the end when she can't hear the killer coming? Siegel plays a deaf writer named Maddie - who authors a novel called Midnight Mass, sound familiar? - who lives alone in a house deep in the woods. When a masked killer arrives, wielding a crossbow, she has to fight for her life in silence, while trying to find a way to outsmart her attacker. Hush uses its 81-minute runtime to the fullest, in a tense, stressful thriller.

The Blackcoat's Daughter features multiple timelines, split into sections, titled “Rose,” “Joan,” and “Kat.” Like Sinister, The Blackcoat's Daughter starts out quite bleak, and only gets worse from there. It's a slow burn, very atmospheric movie, with all roads leading to a devastating and bloody conclusion. Scream queen Emma Roberts (Scream, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, The Hunt) and Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men, The Silence, Swimming with Sharks) put in compelling, albeit troubling performances.

Like Sinister, Hereditary follows one family, as they are haunted by strange and tragic incidents. What starts as a meditation on grief becomes more and more horrifying until it reaches the bloody, violent conclusion. Ari Aster's masterpiece features Toni Collette in a breathtaking and unforgettable performance that many believe should have been acknowledged by the Academy. Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne, and Milly Shapiro round out the cast of this deeply troubling film.

Prisoners, from director Denis Villeneuve, is a harrowing film about what happens when a desperate father takes matters into his own hands. Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano both deliver unforgettable performances, in a cast full of talent, like Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, and Melissa Leo. Coming in at over 2 hours and 30 minutes, Prisoners is brutal, and not for the faint of heart.

Another dark film involving children, from Blumhouse and writer/director Scott Derrickson, The Black Phone is a combination of the supernatural, with horrors of the real world. The Black Phone also features Ethan Hawke, except instead of being just a less-than-stellar patriarch, he's much worse - a child abductor and serial killer. 

Both Last Night in Soho and Sinister have distinct and memorable settings. Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho acts as a love letter to the style of the Sixties, while also revealing the dark underbelly of the oft-romanticized time period. Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) is a fashion student in modern-day London, while nightclub singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) appears in Ellie's dreams. Both women give phenomenal performances, and the costuming is to die for.