Sinister (2012)

Most people think so. 82% of audiences gave it a thumbs up based on 5,947 votes. Critics scored it lower at 58%, but audiences disagreed.

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. Wikipedia ↗

Sinister is a 2012 American supernatural horror film directed by Scott Derrickson. Ethan Hawke stars as Ellison Oswalt, a true crime writer who moves his family into a house where the previous occupants were murdered, hoping to research the case for his next book. In the attic, he discovers a box of Super 8 home movies that depict multiple family murders spanning decades, each ending with one child from the family disappearing.

As Ellison watches the increasingly disturbing footage and investigates the symbol of a pagan deity called Bughuul that appears in each film, the malevolent presence infiltrates his family. Scott Derrickson created one of the most effectively frightening horror films of the 2010s through the simple, primal dread of watching the Super 8 footage — the grainy, deteriorated home movies depicting ordinary family activities that slowly reveal horrifying murders were far more disturbing than any CGI monster. Ethan Hawke's performance captured the moral compromise of a man who knows he should leave the house but is too ambitious and desperate for career success to stop investigating.

Christopher Young's score was genuinely unsettling. Sinister earned $87 million worldwide on a $3 million budget.