2. To increase the scare factor of the horror
film, a supernatural entity is used. This sets
the protagonist apart from the antagonist
very early and quickly. This supernatural
entity is “Bughuul” or “Mr Boogie” He steals
children and takes them to the netherworld.
There is hardly any ambiguity due to the fact that in
most horror films the supernatural are presumed to
be evil. This film conforms to this template, which
makes it film a good physiological horror film as it
plays with the audience’s pre-existing natural fear of
the supernatural - a very common phobia.

3. In horror films, children are often portrayed as the
antagonists because we do not expect it because we attribute
features such as, weak, vulnerable, and innocent to children.
They are still objectified as weak as they have to tie up their
victims before they can begin to kill them. This is consistent
throughout all the murders, for example when the child slit
the throat of their victims, the victims were all tied up. This is
to eliminate the possibility of a struggle as the child will most
likely lose in that event.
Children are not thought of as powerful antagonists but in horror
films, they are. This unexpected turn of events end up being
physiologically terrifying. This causes the audience to also label
children as dangerous and threatening in their minds.

4. Another very common feature in horror films is
low key lighting. This is consistent with
‘Sinister’. Low key lighting is very effective, if a
room is poorly lit, it would be very hard to
identify objects/people within that room. This
is exactly the case when Ellison enters the attic
and discovers the box filled with films. At first
we and him do not know what this object is, we
don’t know the significance of this object due to
the low lighting. He isn’t sure what this object is
until he is closer to the
box. This adds tension
to the film as we are
now expecting a
moment of discovery.

5. The film also uses sounds to its advantage. Most of
these sounds is juts ambient sound. An example of
this is when Ellison is outside at night in search of
“Bughuul” The sounds in this scene is diegetic sound
as Ellison can hear it and so can we, the audience.
This is also the case when Ellison is watching the
films; we can hear the projector in motion. This is
helps the audience connect with Ellison as we can
hear what he can hear and we can see just about what
he can too. Tense non-diegetic sound is also used.
This is simply to just raise the tension in a given scene.
The type of tense music is directionally proportional
to the events taking place. For example the music
played when Ellison is watching the lawn mower
scene is an eerie one. The type expected in a horror
film. This sound is designed to frighten the audience.