All Episodes

October 10, 2025 21 mins

Coming in at number 22, 2012’s “Sinister.” Each day in the month of October we will count you down to Halloween with our favorite, not-so-obvious guaranteed horror hits!  We’ll tell you why each one made the list, what the critics say, who should watch it and who should NOT and what food/drink/atmosphere to pair it with each night…. And of course, where you can watch it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey there, folks, it is Friday, October the tenth. And yes,
I'm sure there have been plenty of horror movies you've
watched and thought, nah, that'll never happen to me. Well,
this one just happened to me and Roeboch and welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ. As we continue
on our horror hit list, as we count down to

(00:30):
our favorite deep cut horror movies, some that you might
not know about. These are some of our favorites and robes.
This one is a heavy hitter on the list, and
yes we'll explain our kind of connection to the story,
but this is not a horror movie for the faint
of heart.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
No it is not. It is very intense and graphic
and blood curdling. I mean, I think that's the best
way to describe it. This one stays with you, It
haunts you, It makes you actually and if when you
do move, if you move into a new home, you're

(01:09):
probably gonna search the attic, some closets, maybe even the
basement for anything that could have been left behind, because
this movie speaks to that. And yes, we've recently moved.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Or often, or you might you said, people are going
to look and maybe into the basement and into the attic.
I would argue that if you watch this movie, you're
never going to step into a basement attic again and
touch anything that looks like it has been there for a while.
It's this is a wild ride, but this is one

(01:43):
of our I mean, this guy's got to be a
top five as far as an actor you enjoy watching.
He's pretty incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, we're talking about Ethan Hawk and the twenty fifteen
movie Sinister and Man that is a good title for
this movie because I actually felt my stomach in knots
throughout this movie. You want to ski something well, but
like there are people who are like, hell yeah, announce
it strange like us who get into that kind of idea.

(02:14):
We're wow, I've seen it all, I've watched it all.
You're telling me that this movie is gonna make me
actually feel something that strongly? I think that. Yes, the
answer is yes. The runtime is an hour and forty
nine minutes of sheer terror. By the way, rated R
horror mystery thriller is the genre, but the synopsis is

(02:36):
fascinating and as we mentioned, potentially real.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yes, so here you go. The movie is about true
crime writer Ellison Oswald he's in a slump. He hasn't
had a best seller in more than ten 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 to solve the mystery, he moves his

(03:02):
own family into the victim's 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.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Uh yeah, what could possibly go wrong? Let me move
my family into a murdered family's home so I can
write about it, but not tell my family that we're
moving into that family's home. That was immediate tension that
starts from the beginning of the movie, because you're like,

(03:40):
does his wife know that he's moving them to this home?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
We watched this recently and I asked you several times,
does she know yet?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Not yet? Not yet? But you know, this was a
huge success at the box office. The budget was just
three million dollars to make the box office total eighty
seven point seven millions, so a juggernaut of a horror movie.
Especially I think back in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Now, the cast we mentioned, like Ethan Hawke is I
think he gets credit for how good of an actor.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
He's amazing.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
He is just so believable at this everyman quality of him.
You're rooting for him, and he always looks like he's
a little bit of pain. There's a motion to him alway.
I love Ethan Hawk but Fred Thompson, yes, Senator Ye,
he's in the movie, OK, Tennessee has a He's not
in there a lot, but he has a huge impact
when he's in there. Vincent Dinafrio, all of which he

(04:32):
was SVU for a while, Yes, Law and Order, Yes.
And then Claire Foley, who is powerful in her role
as well. Scott Derekson. I don't know his previous work,
but that's the director of this film. Rotten Tomatoes. I
was surprised to see this.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, it only got sixty four percent and the audience
score just at sixty two percent, And it was interesting.
They put together all the critic critics from all over
and they call it the critic consensus. I actually was
a little confused by this a little bit, but because
it seems like it's a good critic synopsis, although the

(05:07):
score is less than what you would anticipate for a
movie like this. So here's what it reads. It's plot
hinges on typically implausible horror movie behavior. Yeah, I was
screaming at the at the TV a couple times at
the Ethan Hawk character like, get out, you idiot? Why
are you keep why do you keep watching that? Anyway,
it's plot hinges on typically implausible horror movie behavior. But

(05:30):
we love that and recycles countless genre cliches, but Sinister
delivers a surprising number of fresh diabolical twists.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
This is a jumpy one, this one. There are some
moments you have that surround sound up in the house.
It's going to mess with you.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So we've watched this movie several times. We rewatched it
just before recording this, and I was embarrassed how many
times I jumped, even though I knew it was coming,
even though I knew something was about to happen, and
still I jumped.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
And it's not the jumps where the monster jumps out
and attacks and violence ensues. It's creepy stuff, just even
something falling with a loud noise accompanying it, or a
face that shows up, or a person that shows it's
surprising moments you aren't expecting and they throw you off
by giving you an image you weren't ready for.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
We both mentioned how good the music is in this
particular film. The music is so good at building tension,
at creating some of the suspense. The audio track in
this film is just as effective as the visual. I
think in this one particularly, it was of note because
that was contributing significantly to my level of tension and

(06:42):
terror throughout all of it. But it's visually also incredibly scary.
So we've got some critic reviews, and these are always interesting,
and I always like to either feel validated or outrage
at what the critics say. But most of them were
pretty good. I got a bad one in here. But
this is a slow build type of horror film where
most of the audience can see the endgame long before

(07:05):
the characters in the film, thus the screaming at the TV.
Even so, it's well crafted piece of work with some
genuinely scary moments.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
I don't think it was a GIF. They said, I
don't think it's predictable.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I did not predict the end.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I don't think it's predictable.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I did not predict the ending at all, So I
guess someone who maybe thinks they know more or maybe
does no more, actually was able to predict it. I
thought this one was good to an interesting beast that
combines both classic and modern scares to create a film
that should have you whimpering in your seat by the end.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yes, it's uh, it grabs you and it won't let go.
There's not a lot of moments of relief in this movie,
even when it's not. You're not worry about the whatever, supernatural,
whatever thing is out there, even the moments with his wife, like,
there are some tense fights that are uncomfortable, and so
tension is there throughout. You get no relief, There is

(07:58):
no joy.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
The only relief is from the sweet deputy who helps
Ethan Hawke in his investigation. And that was almost It
was so needed. There was this lighter, cute moments that
he created that we appreciated.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
And you know what he was and a lot of
times was common sense. He was all of us like
he was our guy, because thank you for telling.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Him that, yes he's lost in his artistic writer world
and can't see truth from fiction, but this guy really,
like I did appreciate that character. I do want to
read an ouch one because I again I actually felt
outraged by this critique. This critic writes cheapened scare sequences,

(08:40):
an ambiguous monstrous myth, transparent characterizations, and a mixed bag
of a supernatural storyline barely put any sinister thoughts in
our heads worth contemplating. That is offensive if that's.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Your opinion, and this is what they are. These are opinions,
and I guess these are professional. I don't know if
that's a professional critic or not, but people have their opinions.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Those that was a professional critic, by the way, I
mean whatever that is, but yes, was labeled as an
official critic. Now there was a recent one. Again, I
love these because I do feel like some of these
movies that we have on our list, who weren't appreciated
at the time, have garnered more appreciation as time goes by.
So this recent one, just this past year, I liked this.

(09:25):
I can see why people like this movie and keep
bringing it up to us. It has it's got a
distinctive dark tone while still being very approachable for mainstream audiences.
It's like if the Crow had a baby with the
Nun from the conjuring.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Oh my goodness, Okay.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
All right, the audience reviews I think are some of
the most fun ones because these are real people like us,
and most of them that I saw. There were some
of them were like whatever, dismissive of it, but these
were some of the ones that I really liked. Honestly,
this is one of the scariest movies ever. It's not
like The Exorcist or Hereditary, for example, but a total
different kind of horror movie. Yet it's super scary. And
I use horror movies to sleep on sometimes as the

(10:06):
background same, so I'm not easily scared. But this one
is scary. The score, the atmosphere, the subject matter, the cinematography,
and of course one of my favorite actors, Ethan Hawk,
are just perfect.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
No, we didn't necessarily mention, but she brings it up.
An element that makes this particularly scary is the fact
that it's kind of a found footage movie and he's
going through this old eight millimeter film.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Something about that is hearing that the hum of the Yes,
uh okay, someone else wrote this is one of the
most creepy, disturbing movies I've ever seen. That's totally unbrand
And then here's another one. This is hands down one
of these scariest movies I've ever seen. It gave me

(10:57):
the same nightmarish feelings as the original Nightmare on Elm Street.
Worth a watch. Spoiler alert. Once you've seen some parts
of this movie, you can never unsee them, so agree
with that.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, there are some images. Haunting is a good way
to put it. There are some haunting images in.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
There, disturbing, haunting, scary. This is scary like our last
movie Lake Placid. Not that scary. We thought we'd do
a complete about face and go really really scary with Sinister.
So why it made our list? Yes, that's it. It's
one of the scariest and creepiest movies we have ever seen.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
And you this, Yes, this is one where this is
an event. This is an event for you to sit
and enjoy and be prepared. Always say we've been talking
about through this series, people watch other movies, you experience
a horror movie, and this one hits everything. The sound,
the sight, Your heart rate's gonna go up. You are

(11:55):
immersed in this.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Movie, and you're not just under threat when you're watching
this movie, you're imagining your entire family. Isn't the threat,
and that's what makes it so scary. This isn't just
about you facing evil. This is about you placing evil
in the home, or you putting your family in harms
a way that is part of the scariness of this movie. Now,
when we come back, we're gonna tell you about our

(12:18):
own Sinister experience, and then we'll talk about who it's for,
who it's not for, what you should pair it with,
and of course give you a tease for the next
movie on our list, And we continue with number twenty

(12:46):
two on our list, Schonder, keep counting there. Sinister one
of these scariest movies we have ever seen in our lives.
And it just came top of mind to us as
we just moved a few weeks ago. I ended up
being away and you ended up sending me a text
about something you found buried deep in a closet.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
So the uh, yes, we were talking about Sinister. The
whole premise of the movie, he moves his family to
this home where these horrific murders took place, and then
he finds all this stuff, this old Super eight film
in the basement, and he starts going through it, and
some disturbing stuff is on all this film. Obviously Robes
and I we've been familiar with this movie four years years,

(13:32):
so that's always in the back. We're just aware of that. So, yes,
we moved not too terribly long ago, and you did
not spend well, we didn't spend the first month almost
in the apartment together because you were traveling. Then we
were traveling fine, but one of those weekends where I'm

(13:52):
getting everything settled in, we have a storage closet and
the top shell, I mean the high ceilings, but the
top shelf and in the very very back, like tucked away.
How would you describe that box. It's a metal It's
almost a thin toolbox, is.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
How it's It looks like a metal, thin baby blue toolbox,
and just by the color and materials used, you can
tell it's old. It was in good condition, but it
looked like it was from something from the nineteen fifties.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
And so I only discovered I couldn't see it from
where it was because it was just so far up high.
But I was trying to put another box up there
and it wouldn't go all the way in, so I
had to go get a ladder and see what it was,
and sure enough it was that. Now I am trying
to look up. I'm trying to remember what my messages
were to you at the time that this happened, because
it freaked me out terribly. I opened this box, and

(14:45):
there are perfectly organized in their slides, these picture slides,
and these things are some of them labeled with years
on them in nineteen, I think fifties and nineteen sixties.
And I held a few of them up to the
light and it looked like they were images of art,

(15:05):
like works of art. But then there were others that
you saw images of people. And I got through about
at least five of them, and I said, hell, no,
I'm done.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
They were scary, are they or because of the movie?

Speaker 1 (15:24):
No, we're freaking out.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
I'm telling you, Okay, I've got it. Okay, you just
wrote yeah, I've got it all. Okay, here you go.
I'm gonna read this, Okay.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So, yes, this is me. I'm home alone in a
home that hasn't been necessarily filled in yet. There's a
lot of space. So I was freaking out a little.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Bit, Babe. I found some creepy horror movie shit in
the house legitimately spooked me. Then you took a picture
of the box. That box was on the very top
shelf and tucked in the very back of the shelf.
Thought it might be a little toolkit. But it's filled
with picture slides. Yes, old ass picture slides of various things.

(16:06):
I stopped looking after holding a few up to the light.
I'm talking one hundred and fifty plus slides with the
picture is perfectly organized. Then you send me a picture
of a man standing with his shadow behind him, and
I'm sorry, I don't want to say weird, but a
weird looking woman behind him, standing in an awkward thing
with a weird shadow behind her. It's black and white,
it's from the nineteen it is actually it says spring

(16:29):
Training nineteen sixty five, And that sounds so much like
Sinister because it's like sleepy time, oh party with the date,
so it's like literally labeled the same way Sinister is.
And it's like this man standing in like perfect formation
with just like trunks on. It's weird. It looks like

(16:49):
it's by a pool. So I said, holy shit, it's
like that Ethan Hawk movie that is so scary and
cool all at the same time. You right back, is
it okay? That recursing here creepy is fun. I want
to throw them out, but I might get cursed. Oh god,
that's what you said, he said, Yeah, you were just
like And then I started zooming in on the pictures.

(17:11):
We I don't know. We can't probably put them online
because there's someone else's photographs, But if I can, please
tell you that these are the scariest photos I have
ever seen of people, I said, and I said, the
guy looks like Patrick Wilson he did in the movie. Anyway,
I'm telling you it was so scary.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Anybody else might have found those and thought nothing of
it because they haven't seen Sinister and they're not horror
movie freaks. We found the box, immediately think about Sinister
and say one picture is from the guy who was
enconjuring it.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
True though, Okay, we have to find out who the
owners of these are because I would love to actually
just put If you guys saw these photos, I'm telling
you there's no one who wouldn't be freaked out. Even
if you hadn't seen the movie Sinister, they would still
be creepy people. Okay, it might just be degree, all right,
So this movie is for anyone who wants to be scared. Shitless.
Bottom line, you also have to be okay with entire

(18:08):
families being murdered. If you're not on board with that
in a horror movie, you should not watch this movie.
So yes, who it's not for anyone who can't handle that,
who doesn't like a lot of dread and foreboding, because
that's a huge part of this movie. And it's just
you have to have a tough stomach, and we have
we should say ropes because a lot.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Of people hear everything you just described, Like, why would
anybody appreciate want to see in God forbid enjoy a
movie like that? Well, because it is a movie experience.
You see obviously great acting, but there's great storytelling throughout.
Like you said, it's a great shot, it's a great music,
and it's shot in a cool way. It is a

(18:48):
I'm sorry, it is a fun experience. You will enjoy
watching this movie.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
If you like that kind of thing, it should be
a caveat. We need that caveat.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's kind of a family I know.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
God, no, it's not. I would say that the other
thing just to try and defend our like of this movie,
because once you see it, you probably will judge us.
If you aren't into that, but there's so much awful
stuff that's going on in the world. It's it's a
form of escapism, and this might it just it's so
absurdly awful and supernatural too that you feel like it's

(19:22):
a departure from actual issues. But it could cut too
close for home for people. I just want to put
that warning out there. It is. It is a tough watch,
you know, and.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
It does well for us. It's a wonderful watch, right
because this is what I want to be scared.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
We have a difficult time sometimes getting scared and horrible
because we've seen so much. We know what's coming this
it's fun to.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Be scared, yes, so I guess it will. And in
terms of food drink pairing, I'm gonna go ahead and say,
have drinks before, have dinner before. I don't think that
this is appetite inducing. This movie is really tough, not
because it's so gory, but because the material is so
dark and sinister. So I would just if you're gonna
have snacks or drinks, just keep them non acidic. That's

(20:05):
what I would say. You don't want to contribute to
the bubbles. You're already gonna feel in your gut watching
this movie. That's just my two cents on this one.
So enjoy with all of that praise. All right, Our next,
our next movie, we want to go, Oh wait, where
can we watch this? We watched Sinister where I didn't

(20:25):
put that in there. I think you can watch it, Okay,
Hulu you can watch it, and Amazon Prime. You have
to have a subscription to either Disney Plus, but you
can always obviously all of these you can get on
Apple tv Vandego at home. But if you want to
get it for free O two B and if you
have a Disney Plus subscription of Hulu subscription, or if

(20:47):
you have an add on to Amazon Prime. So just
so you know, that's where you can watch it if
you want to be scared to death. Our next episode
is a movie that has one of our all time
face favorite horror movie actors in it, right, and I
believe the first ten minutes will hook you for the
entire movie.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
That's a good, good.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Tease, all right, And with that, thank you for listening
to this episode of Amy and TJ. I'm Amy Robot
alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon
Advertise With Us

Hosts And Creators

Lauren Zima

Lauren Zima

Chris Harrison

Chris Harrison

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.