Here’s the thing about Sinister: it knows that we’re onto it.  A lot of horror movies evince a certain self-awareness, but Sinister doesn’t use it to nudge us in the ribs. It uses it to scare the holy crap out of us. The big reveal (which I daren’t mention here) involves one of the oldest clichés in the genre: the kind that makes audience members say “why don’t they just…?” and destroy the whole movie in the process. Sinister has our number, and is more than happy to punch it up as often as it can. Hit the jump for my full review.

With Nate Parker (Red Tails) reportedly exiting Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake due to scheduling conflicts (with Non-Stop, starring Liam Neeson), the director has turned to a familiar collaborator in James Ransone (Sinister).  Oldboy will mark the third time the duo have worked together, following Lee’s Inside Man and Red Hook Summer.   Currently filming, Oldboy also stars Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson and Sharlto Copely.  Variety reports that Ransone will play a doctor who works with Olsen’s character in the remake of Chan-wook Park’s revenge thriller, a story that centers on a man (Brolin) who escapes from a decade of imprisonment and goes in search of his kidnappers.  Ransone can next be seen in Broken City, along with Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg.

For news on John Leguizamo (The Lincoln Lawyer) joining Ice Cube and Kevin Hart in the action-comedy, Ride Along, hit the jump.

In an attempt to creep you the fuck out before it opens in theaters October 12th, Sinister has released a host of new images, GIFs (which are always fun) and clips.  The film, written and directed by The Exorcism of Emily Rose’s Scott Derrickson, centers on a family who moves into a house only to discover that its been the setting of gruesome murders of families in the past.  The evidence is found via old film reels, which also house the vindictive spirit, unbeknownst to our protagonists.  Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone, opens October 12th.  Hit the jump to check out the new images, clips and GIFs.

Words cannot express the horrific potential this new red-band trailer for Sinister has to scare you.  Unlike the first trailer for Scott Derrickson’s upcoming horror film, no one utters a word in the red-band trailer and the effect is vastly improved.  After the exhausting runs of the Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises, getting back to basics is a relief.  While the premise for Sinister isn’t exactly original and continues to invoke the current “found footage” gimmick (though with a slightly new angle), it looks like it could be a truly scary film.

Sinister stars Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance and James Ransone and opens October 12th, but you can see it first by bringing an early screening to your hometown.  Hit the jump to see the new red-band trailer. 

Amidst horror films like The Apparition, The Possession and The Tall Man that are currently in theaters, director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) must wait until October 5th to unleash Sinister.  His take on the found-footage sub-genre centers on a true-crime novelist (Ethan Hawke) who discovers that his new house played host to vicious murders and supernatural entities still haunt the walls.  If you’d like to bring a screening of Sinister to your town before its October 5th release, check out the details here.  For now, we have ten new images to share with you that should satisfy your need to be creeped the hell out.

Sinister also stars Juliet Rylance, James Ransone and Vincent D’Onofrio.  Hit the jump to check out the images.

AMC is looking to add another dark police drama to its roster with Low Winter Sun, which originally aired in Britain as a miniseries in 2006.  The revamped American version, which will be a co-production the Dutch Endemol Studios and AMC, will be written and executive produced by Chris Mundy (Criminal Minds). Like the series on which it will be based, this version will feature a detective who murders another detective, believing it to be the perfect crime.

In the new series, Mark Strong is likely to reprise his role of that murderous detective, Frank Agnew, with the setting moving from Edinburgh to Detroit.  It will also feature James Ransone (Treme) as Damon Callis, a member of the Detroit organized crime syndicate into which Agnew will be drawn.  For more on the project, hit the jump.

There was a lot of buzz surrounding Red Hook Summer in development because director Spike Lee reprises his role from the 1989 classic Do the Right Thing.  There were other elements that bode well for one of the better Spike Lee joints in recent years, including the Brooklyn setting and star Clarke Peters (The Wire).  Red Hook Summer polarized critics at Sundance (Matt gave it an “F”), which could be viewed as another positive sign, given Lee’s resume.  Both the good (the music, visual flair) and the bad (poor child actors, drowning in that melodrama) are on display in the first trailer.

Jules Brown, Toni Lysaith, Nate Parker, James Ransone, and Thomas Jefferson Byrd star alongside Peters in Red Hook Summer.  Let’s you and I wait until it opens on August 10 to make up our minds.  In the meantime, test the waters by watching the trailer after the break.

The first trailer for director Scott Derrickson’s new horror film Sinister has been released.  The film stars Ethan Hawke as a true crime novelist who moves his family into a house where the horrific murder of an entire family took place, in an effort to discover his next big story.  When he finds a box of home videos in which other families are also brutally murdered, he realizes he may have made a huge mistake by moving into the house.  The trailer is a bit heavy handed when it comes to exposition, as characters state flat-out what everything means (“That’s the family that used to live here!” “That symbol is obviously a pagan demon who feeds on children’s souls!”).  That said, there look to be some genuinely terrifying scares and as a fan of Derrickson’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I’m game to check out what he has in store with Sinister.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Vincent D’Onofrio and James Ransone. Sinister opens on August 24th.

Up until the past 15 years or so, television series were firmly episodic.  Serialized TV (outside of mini-series) risked alienating viewers since it stopped anyone from coming in mid-season.  However, with the rise of DVDs, OnDemand, and digital downloads, serialized TV series have become firmly established.  Some shows still retain an episodic nature, but some series—particularly dramas—have been built around telling one long story over the course of an entire season.  Our new feature, Seasoned, will review a TV series by season rather than by episode.

Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Wire, and click here for my review of season one.

Based on titles alone, Robot & Frank was the most intriguing film out of Sundance.  I was thrilled to hear the movie is great, and star Frank Langella unsurprisingly kills it.  Coming out of the festival buzz, Deadline reports Langella has signed on to his next project, The Time Being.  Wes Bentley co-stars as Daniel, a struggling artist who accepts a series of bizarre commissions from a dying, eccentric millionaire (Langella): “Daniel can’t quite ascertain whether his new ‘mentor’ is a monster who is intent on destroying Daniel’s life and marriage, or a savior who will teach him the true meaning of art.”  The Time Being will be the directorial debut of Nenad Cicin-Sain.  Cicin-Sain co-wrote the script with Richard Gladstein (Paper Man), who is also producing.

Hit the jump for details on Josh Peck and James Ransone‘s starring roles in The Timber.

Spike Lee‘s Red Hook Summer is one of my must-see films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  The movie features a cast comprised mostly of unknown and all we knew about the plot was the brief logline: “A young Atlanta boy spends his summer in Brooklyn with his grandfather, who he’s never seen before.”  A full synopsis has gone online and reveals that the grandfather, Enoch (The Wire‘s Clarke Peters) is a strict firebrand preacher who “is bent on getting [the boy] to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior.”

Hit the jump to read the full synopsis and check out new images from the film.  The 2012 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19–29^th.

When The Wire ended it was a bittersweet moment. For five seasons, The Wire showed what television could be, and that long form storytelling need not get lost in useless subplots, or characters added to reinvigorate a stale premise. Put simply, The Wire is the finest accomplishment the format has come to offer, and the only consolation was that the show never faltered, it never stopped being brilliant. Creators David Simon and Ed Burns had earned the right to fail, to take chances, to do whatever television presented them, and their follow up was the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. My review is after the jump: