In 2012, true crime novelist Ellison Oswalt moved his family into a home where a horrific murder had taken place. Each night, while they slept soundly, unaware of the bloodshed that once decorated their new abode, he uncovered the truth about the unsolved mystery of the previous residents who were hanged in his backyard, and the dark figure he believes to be responsible for the event. After discovering a box in the attic containing a Super 8 camera, a projector, and tin cans filled with film, Elison decides to watch whatever is on these little home movies, and use them as little bits of evidence that will hopefully will bring him one step closer to the killer, and his long-awaited return to literary fame. But as the projector slaps the celluloid through the spinning reels, and the bulb sparks to life and emits images onto the screen, Elison finds to his horror that he isn’t just watching movies that contain clues to various crimes, he’s witnessing real snuff films made by the killer’s own hand. At first, it seems like the ticket to success has been lazily dropped in his lap. However, as his knowledge on the subject grows, Elison learns that the man he is hunting down is uncatchable, for he isn’t a man at all — he’s a deity. Now, Elison, along with his new friend in the police department, Deputy So & So, try their hardest to put an end to the reign of this horrible creature, who goes by Bughuul, or “Mr. Boogie”, but to no avail. In the end, Elison and his loving family fall prey to the same boogeyman that claimed the lives of all of the people from the tapes that Elison studied night after night, his collaborating deputy figuring out the secret to end the madness frustratingly only moments too late.

Flash-forward to 2015, and Deputy So-and-So hasn’t given up the search for Bughuul, or his quest to stop this personification of death once and for all. Let go from the force for attempting to burn a house to the ground, this deputy believes that if he sets fire to a home that is on Bughuul’s path, he will set flame to the pagan icon himself, and thereby finally put an end to his hundred year strong killing spree. The deputy’s on his way to the next house on the list, equipped with cans of gasoline, lighters, and a determination to avenge his lost friend. What he finds when he arrives, however, is a family that has already moved in to the property, unknowingly marking themselves as the next victims of Bughuul and his ghost children. Now, the deputy must earn the trust of mother Courtney Collins and her two boys, Dylan and Zach, protect them from Courtney’s abusive husband that seeks to take full custody by force, all while shielding them from Bughuul and his merciless wrath on the innocent. To say that he’s up against incredible odds would be an understatement, but with enough persistence, the deputy might just be able to save this family, and pay back the debt he feels he owes after being unable to rescue Elison and the rest of the Oswalts three long, guilt-ridden years ago.

When producer Jason Blum asked Sinister writers Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill back for a sequel, the first obstacle to tackle was isolating the centerpieces from the first film, and revisiting them in a manner that felt satisfactory for fans, but not repetitive. “Everyone has a very different idea of what a Sinister movie is” writer C. Robert Cargill observes, which means that each fan is going to want different elements of the first film brought back again. “Is it the kill films? Is it Bughuul?” ponders Cargill, “Is it the kids? Like, what is it specifically that makes a Sinister film a Sinister film?” In order to answer that question, Cargill and Derrickson sat down and started at square one. “Well, first of all, let’s bring Deputy So & So back”, Cargill recites while reminiscing back to brainstorming for the script with Derrickson. The deputy, who could have easily been a throwaway typical cop character in the first installment, actually turns out to be a worthy companion to Ellison, as Cargill points out how in the “first movie he proves that he’s an even better investigator than Ellison is, and now in this movie, he gets to prove it by doing all of the things that Ellison didn’t, and becoming the hero that we needed in the first film, that can hopefully save the family this time”.

To director Ciarán Foy, a Sinister film is characterized by its turmoil in the family unit. “I think that the scares are the icing on the cake”, explains Foy, “if the drama doesn’t work, then it doesn’t matter what you do, you know?” Foy recognizes that what made the first film stand out and seem so frightening was how grounded in reality the members of the family were, with their fights and their inside jokes and their dreams. “It was my kind of horror film in that the performances felt real, therefore the characters felt real, and I often think that when you’ve got that recipe right then any sense of terror or horror that you ask the audience to feel is amplified because it doesn’t feel fake”. Foy hopes to bring that same strong sense of realism to his entry in the franchise, and producer Jason Blum couldn’t be more in favor of his decision. “If there’s any theme of Sinister, to me, it’s taking a common crisis and escalating the crisis by putting it in a supernatural circumstance” remarks Blum. Even Cargill comments on how the impact of he and Derrickson’s work lies in the gritty depiction of familial bonds, “at its heart, a real Sinister movie is one that shows the breakdown of a family unit, that shows us exactly why this kid is able and willing to be seduced by Bughuul”.

Just like its predecessor, Sinister 2 focuses on the terrors and trials within the characters’ own family unit as much as the horrifying spirits that haunt their home. Bughuul may be a powerful Babylonian god of darkness, but he doesn’t create struggles in the household as much as he capitalizes on them. “On the surface, Bughuul is an ancient pagan deity that seduces children and gets them to create art while killing their parents” muses Cargill, “But really, the deeper thing with Bughuul is Bughuul feeds on dysfunction”. Clever as he is wicked, Mr. Boogie seeks out troubled kids, manipulates them into thinking that the source of their problems is their parents, and the only solution is to kill them. “He feeds upon broken families, that’s how he gets the kids” states Cargill about his creature. Bughuul may collect children’s souls, but it’s not done all at once. He eats them slowly, over time, as he consumes a little more of their happiness and humanity with each day, until there’s nothing left but a shadow of the child this family once knew.

The Collins family has been experiencing frightening issues since long before their interactions with Bughuul and his ghost children. The man of the house, Clint, is just as much of a predator as the mouthless monster terrorizing his son Dylan, as he’s proven to be very abusive in the past, both verbally and physically. It seems that no matter where Dylan turns, a boogeyman in the form of a father figure stands waiting to claim him. “Slowly turning them into monsters is exactly what we were going for” explains Cargill, “Because that’s the thing, Bughuul and Clint are essentially the same thing. They’re both these things that are just trying to exist, and exist through fear and intimidation”

As Clint hammers out the circle of violence that plagues so many abusive homes; his angry nature mirrored in his son Zach, so, too, does Bughuul act out his circle of violence, as he continues his reign, destroying household after household, and projecting his murderous ways onto children who commit horrid crimes in his name, the two physical and supernatural cycles looping out the same circle motif. “The circle of violence was something that was thematically important to me, not only to drama, but also visually” says director Foy, “I spoke to Bill Boes, the production designer, at length about how I wanted circular motion to be something that carries through the movie.” This idea is clearly evident in the film, as circular imagery pops up left and right, from the way victims are arranged, to the pattern of the crops, to the spinning of the camera. “We’re talking about Bughuul’s reign of murders, we’re talking about the kill films, and we’re talking about history repeating itself” stresses Foy. Interestingly enough, by highlighting the two rings of carnage within the physical context of the set, Foy brings the parallels between Clint and Bughuul full circle.

As Mr. Boogie is caught on film once again, the chances of him becoming a new horror icon, and joining the ranks of past slasher legends like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, skyrockets. “People are always looking for an iconic horror figure” series expert Blum teases, “I don’t know if Bughuul is that yet, but he could be”. As a production company responsible for such successful micro budget films as the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchises, Blumhouse certainly is an appropriate home for the Sinister movies to blossom. In the event of future films, Cargill already has an idea for a new plot point in place, as highlighted by Sinister 2. “If there are any other Sinister films, I would love to see a variety of art forms played around with” Cargill reveals excitedly, describing his plans for Bughuul to break through different forms of medium in upcoming entries, such as “Different styles of camera, but also audio, digital, and whatever else can create these experiences that can terrify the audience”. Does this mean that the third Sinister film could swap out the usual aspect of children filming their murderous rampages for recording their sprees via literature? It’s possible.

One thing’s for sure, if there are any future entries in the Sinister franchise, Blum absolutely wants to bring back Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill as the writers once again: “I really think the key to making a good sequel is to get the people who were involved in the original”, adding on later that Derrickson is one of the most talented directors that Blum had ever has the pleasure of working with, and that he hopes to “do a lot more with him once he’s done with his friends at Marvel”.