"Once you see him, nothing can save you"
Being the horror movie junkie that I'm, I was craving to see this movie when I had read reviews that it would keep you up at night. Little did I know that I would be so disappointed.
Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) is a crime novelist looking to find fame again after his book "Kentucky blood." To do so, he decides to move his family into the actual scene of the crime where is he is investigating the murder of a family with only a sole survivor. As the moving takes place, Ellison comes across a box of super 8 film in the attic and is eaten by his curiosity. He sits down one night at his office and is very bewildered to find that one of the films is about the very family he is writing his book about.
As the night goes on, Ellison views more of the film and discovers that there are more murders that follow a pattern. The whole family is killed except for one member, a child. He is bothered by series of questions like who is filming this? Or who is the mastermind and where are the missing children? As he goes through more film, he sees a demonic creature of some kind watching the murders take place. It just so happens that this creature is Bagul, who would kill entire families so that he could take their children into his realm and consume their souls.
But after a series of night terrors from his son and a few frightening occurrences at night, Ellison decides that he needs to leave the house and forget about everything that happened. As he tries to start over in a new household, he discovers again, the box of super 8 film in his attic which he previously tried destroying prior to the move. His friend the deputy gives him a call about how the murders are connected: Every family had previously lived in the house where the last murder took place, and each new murder occurred shortly after the family moved into their new residence; by moving, Ellison has placed himself and his family in line to be the next victims.
I'm not going to spoil the ending of this movie but I'm pretty sure you can figure it out based from the summary I just gave you. This is a pretty slow paced movie and it doesn't change settings more than twice. The majority of the scenes were in the house itself. Bagul's appearance isn't even frightening in my opinion. A demonic creature in a black jacket with long shaggy hair and white face paint who doesn't even have a mouth? I don't think so. A few scenes will probably make you cringe but this won't keep you up at night. I liked the concept of the story and I think it could have been developed more but the ending lacked creativity and it's like the director didn't even know who the real demon was.
