Sinister

Scott Derrickson's Sinister (US, 2012) - Caveat emptor barely covers the fresh warning "Sinister" supplies in an already cautious real-estate market: Don't buy a house where the previous family was hanged, drowned, incinerated or otherwise murdered, unless you care to meet a similar fate. Ethan Hawke plays a desperate true-crime writer whose investigations into a shocking small-town death uncover a series of similar cases, suggesting his own family could be next. The scares are not just intense but unyielding in this compelling horror yarn from "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" director Scott Derrickson, which sneak-screened at SXSW seven months ahead of its Oct. 5 release. 2012SITGES, 2012SXSW. RATING: 7