To increase the scare factor of the horrorfilm, a supernatural entity is used. This setsthe protagonist apart from the antagonistvery early and quickly. This supernaturalentity is “Bughuul” or “Mr Boogie” He stealschildren and takes them to the netherworld.

There is hardly any ambiguity due to the fact that inmost horror films the supernatural are presumed tobe evil. This film conforms to this template, whichmakes it film a good physiological horror film as itplays with the audience’s pre-existing natural fear ofthe supernatural - a very common phobia.

In horror films, children are often portrayed as theantagonists because we do not expect it because we attributefeatures such as, weak, vulnerable, and innocent to children.They are still objectified as weak as they have to tie up theirvictims before they can begin to kill them. This is consistentthroughout all the murders, for example when the child slitthe throat of their victims, the victims were all tied up. This isto eliminate the possibility of a struggle as the child will mostlikely lose in that event.

Children are not thought of as powerful antagonists but in horrorfilms, they are. This unexpected turn of events end up beingphysiologically terrifying. This causes the audience to also labelchildren as dangerous and threatening in their minds.

Another very common feature in horror films islow key lighting. This is consistent with‘Sinister’. Low key lighting is very effective, if aroom is poorly lit, it would be very hard toidentify objects/people within that room. Thisis exactly the case when Ellison enters the atticand discovers the box filled with films. At firstwe and him do not know what this object is, wedon’t know the significance of this object due tothe low lighting. He isn’t sure what this object isuntil he is closer to thebox. This adds tensionto the film as we arenow expecting amoment of discovery.

The film also uses sounds to its advantage. Most ofthese sounds is juts ambient sound. An example ofthis is when Ellison is outside at night in search of“Bughuul” The sounds in this scene is diegetic soundas Ellison can hear it and so can we, the audience.This is also the case when Ellison is watching thefilms; we can hear the projector in motion. This ishelps the audience connect with Ellison as we canhear what he can hear and we can see just about whathe 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 proportionalto the events taking place. For example the musicplayed when Ellison is watching the lawn mowerscene is an eerie one. The type expected in a horrorfilm. This sound is designed to frighten the audience.