- Directed by Scott Derrickson
- Written by Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargoll
- Stars Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kbQAJR9YWQ
Synopsis
We watch grainy old footage of an entire family being hanged. Credits roll.
A family is moving into their new home, and the sheriff drives up to talk to the husband. The sheriff wants them all to move out, right now. Ellison wrote a “True Crime” book that was very anti-cop, so he’s not popular with the men in blue. He’s here to investigate a missing girl and the dead family for his new book, but the sheriff believes she’s dead. Wife Tracy asks, “We didn’t just move in a few houses down from a crime scene, did we?” Ellison says “No.” He’s technical telling the truth. We see the hanging tree in their backyard…
While putting stuff in the attic, Ellison finds some old film reels. Later, setting up a crazy wall in his office, he finds a photo of the attic, and it was empty before they moved in. He decides to watch the films. We see a family doing “family things,” at least until he gets to the part with the hanging. Who made the film? Stephanie’s not in the film, maybe it was her. He watches a second film, where a different family is all chained up in their car which catches fire, and they all burn to death. He starts to call the police, but changes his mind. There are other films that are all similar in nature. He sees a demonic-looking face in one of them.
Son Trevor has night terrors, which involve a lot of screaming. The next morning, Trevor doesn’t remember any of it. Trevor finds out about the hanging family the next day at school, and Tracy is not amused, Ellison watches more of the movies. Each of the murders has one missing child involved. Ellison hears something up in the attic, but he can’t find anything except a big snake and drawings of “Mr. Boogie.” The drawings all represent the deaths in the movies— and then he falls through the attic floor. After the ambulance leaves, the deputy offers to help Ellison with his research. He asks about the other murders, and the deputy says he’ll look into it.
That night, Trevor is out sleepwalking again. Tracy blames everything on Ellison; he’s already a mess and drinking too much, and the book is barely getting started. The deputy turns up some information, and Ellison shares a little back with him. He calls Professor Jonas, an occult expert, who explains that the symbol on the walls of the victims is the symbol of pagan deity, Bughuul, “the eater of children.” That night, Ellison wakes up to find the films are playing themselves; something is in the house following him around.
The deputy starts to think that Ellison is over stressed, and he says there’s no way he’d ever sleep in this house. Ellison is definitely getting paranoid, but he’s not necessarily wrong. Daughter Ashley starts talking to Stephanie, the missing girl from the hanging family. This starts a huge fight between Ellison and Tracy.
That night, Ellison goes up into the attic again, and he sees all the missing/dead children watching a video of Bughuul. Ellison is really freaked out and burns the films and projector in the backyard grill. He decides that Tracy was right and they need to leave the house— tonight. They grab the kids, pack a few things and drive back to their old house.
They pass a speed trap and get pulled over. It’s the sheriff. When he hears they’re leaving town, he lets them go.
The next day, they move everything back to their old house. Professor Jonas calls back with more information. Apparently images of Bughuul can summon him; the pictures are a gateway.
That night, Ellison goes up to the attic in this house and finds more films and a projector. These are “extended cut endings,” so Ellison has to watch them. The deputy calls with still more information: Turns out each murdered family lived in the house of the previous murdered family. Guess who lived in one of those houses most recently?
The new films all include the missing children doing the murdering of their families before they vanish. Then Ellison passes out- he’s been drugged by daughter Ashley.
He wakes up tied and gagged on the floor next to Tracy. Ashley films him lying there with a Super8 camera. Then she joins the other missing children on the film.
Now there’s one more film in the box of reels.
Commentary
it’s a really dark film to look at, and it makes liberal use of jump scares. It’s more about uncovering the mystery than it is about the monster, at least at first.
The acting is all excellent, and the characters all act appropriately for the most part. No one in this household seems to know how to switch on a light though, and that just seems unrealistic considering the circumstances.
It’s really good— very tense and dark.