Anglicisms successfully fit into Russian speech, causing less and less surprise. Nevertheless, there are words that raise legitimate questions. More recently, the horror film Sinister was released. What this means was not possible to find out even after watching the picture, so the inquisitive audience began to explore the plot bit by bit. The creators of the film are atypical at a standstill, because this is not the name of the main villain and the name of the demon featured in the script.
Meaning of the word “sinister”
If you open the English-Russian dictionary, then the secret is revealed, although it adds questions of a non-linguistic nature. The dictionary meaning is actually quite mundane - "sinister", "gloomy", "dark." The same word is used if it is necessary to denote something terrible and inexplicable, there is even the meaning “left”, in the sense of “atypical” or even “similar”.
What does this mean? "Sinister" is a word that is not so often used in a context familiar to the average viewer. We are used to more standard notation. On the other hand, no one forbids the filmmakers to use sonorous synonyms to create the necessary mood.
Original title for the film
Naming is generally quite a difficult task, and cinema is no exception. There are many films, books, companies and firms with the same names, which inevitably creates a certain confusion. In this case, the film was called Sinister. What does this mean from the point of view of the creators of the picture?
First of all, it reliably removes the picture from the list of creations with typical names such as “Fear”, “Horror” and others. You could take the path of least resistance and add the name of the town where the events take place, but this idea, apparently, did not find support. What is the problem, and why did exclusively Russian-speaking viewers encounter perceptual problems?
Subtleties of translation
Soon after the release of the film, hundreds and even thousands of viewers wondered: “Sinister - what does this mean if this is not the name of the main demon around whose actions the plot is being built?” The demon's name is Bagul, he is not in mythology, he is completely the figment of the fantasy of screenwriter Robert Cargill. At one time, he was so impressed with the film "Call" that he had a nightmare, which formed the basis of the script.
If we consider the appearance of the name in the English context, then it is commonplace. To name the film “Ominous” - and part of the mood of the audience is already guaranteed. In the Russian translation, for some mysterious reasons, the name is simply transliteration. Why the translators decided to leave the name in English is a mystery, covered in darkness.
Probably, for the reasons already stated above, the word "ominous" is already so obscured that it did not seem either spectacular or mysterious. Transliteration successfully casts a shadow on the fence, creating a secret where it originally did not exist.
Comparison with Kind Anglicisms
A huge number of synonyms and related words quite successfully take root in the Russian language. “Sinister” - what is it and will this word become as familiar as a thriller, horror or slasher?
This is where the unwritten laws of the penetration of foreign words and terms come into force. In 1981, the successful horror film The Evil Dead was released, and the name was translated as “The Evil Dead”. Strictly speaking, the English word “evil” itself is translated not only as “evil”, but also as “sinister”. This is a more familiar designation. The Evil Dead film at one time made excellent collections and was deafeningly popular with us, as soon as the Iron Curtain rose.
Perhaps this was the reason why our translators preferred direct transliteration, and the meaning of the word “sinister” was not reflected in the name. The word "evil" is currently used quite widely, especially on the Internet, as a prefix meaning the "dark side" of any person or character. It is unlikely that “sinister” will be able to fit into the lexicon just as well.
Word usage
The use of Englishism may be appropriate or undesirable. For a long time this was a peculiar sign of “coolness,” and this phenomenon could not but cause a confrontation. For example, instead of a brief “horror”, you can still say “horror film” if this is a matter of principle. But how is it possible to briefly express the slasher genre in Russian? This will result in a rather long verbal construction such as “a horror film in which many characters are killed unsystematically in a variety of bloody ways.”
We know what the word sinister means, but can it be used in the same unconstrained way as the above Anglicisms? No one can forbid, but it is unlikely that a random interlocutor will understand what you mean. At the moment, this word remains only one more synonym for the English “evil”, and more by ear as the name of the film.
Possible perspectives
If we consider the expansion of the English language into literally all spheres of life, then we can assume that in the future the word “sinister” will also be adapted. What does it mean? It is possible that it will stand out in a separate subgenre of horror or gain distribution according to the example of slang Englishism “creepy”.
We can assume that in the near future the word can “Russify” and acquire all the properties that are inherent in Russian words: it will begin to decline in cases and transform into verb forms. So if, after a couple of years, we hear about a “sinister mood” or the verb “sinister” (by analogy with “hysteria”, you can only pump not a tantrum, but an ominous mood), then there is hardly any reason to be surprised.