This October marks the 10th anniversary of the release of Sinister, one of the best horror movies of the last two decades. Sinister also foreshadowed the demonic phenomena of Drag Queen Story Hour and the sexualization of American children.
Before analyzing Sinister, it’s important to note that horror movies, contrary to popular perception, often reinforce positive social norms. Starting with Frankenstein and going through The Exorcist, Re-Animator, Alien, Hell House, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Hereditary, horror films are often powerful warnings against greed, conceit, defying the natural law, and dabbling into the occult. Frankenstein warns us not to play God and try and reverse the inevitability of death. The Exorcist warns us not to mess around with the occult the way the possessed child Regan does when she tampers with a Ouija board. Slasher flicks like Nightmare on Elm Street depict the children who get killed as promiscuous, arrogant bullies. Re-Animator tells us we can’t live forever and should not try.
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Likewise, in Sinister, the moral is clear: Anyone who is so desperate for fame, self-esteem, and notoriety that they would put their own family in danger is risking a very bad outcome. In the film, Ellison Oswalt and wife Tracy (played by Ethan Hawke and Juliet Rylance, respectively) move into a nice suburban house in Pennsylvania with their two children. There’s just one problem: The house was previously the scene of a grisly murder involving the hanging of an entire family in the backyard. Ellison is the author of true-crime books and has chosen the house intentionally, believing he can research the previous murder and have a bestseller that will revive his career. He has kept this information from his family.
In several scenes, his wife and children beg him to leave the house, noting that Ellison has been offered steady (if boring) work writing college textbooks. Ellison refuses. He’s like a parent warned about the demonic influence of Drag Queen Story Hour only to ignore the warning signs in an effort to appease the monsters of leftist culture.
Those monsters are very much like the monster in Sinister — a pagan deity dating back to Babylonian times named Bughuul, the Eater of Children. As an occult expert explains to Ellison:
<bsp-quote data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1666639563091,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-3108-d928-a77f-73ccd2e60000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1666639563091,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-3108-d928-a77f-73ccd2e60000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"quote":"“The crimes that you’re dealing with, they all have the element of a missing child, correct? Well, Bughuul eats children. Now, the fragments of stories that have survived, they all revolve around him needing the souls of human children to survive. Now each story involves a different way that he lures or tricks these children away from the physical world and traps them in his own netherworld and he consumes their souls over time.”","_id":"00000184-0b75-d2c9-a9e6-bb7d004a0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b92f10002"}”><i>“The crimes that you’re dealing with, they all have the element of a missing child, correct? Well, Bughuul eats children. Now, the fragments of stories that have survived, they all revolve around him needing the souls of human children to survive. Now each story involves a different way that he lures or tricks these children away from the physical world and traps them in his own netherworld and he consumes their souls over time.”</i>Bughuul tricks children by using art as a portal, which he then uses to pull the children into his world. He lives in the images that depict him. When the Oswalts first move into their new home, Ellison discovers a cache of old 8-millimeter “home movies” and a projector in the attic. The movies are actually snuff films of families getting murdered. Ellison, the crime writer hoping to rekindle his career, can’t stop watching, thinking this research has him on the verge of a professional resurrection. All he has to do is solve the crimes that he is seeing in the films. However, all the while, it is through the images in these films that Bughuul is entering Ellison’s world and getting to his children.
This is an ingenious set-up, beautifully realized by director Scott Derrickson and the outstanding cast. The analog to the Drag Queen Story Hour and the sexualization in our schools is clear. Ellison’s first mistake is bringing the family to this horror house to begin with, just as most parents of small children should not be within miles of any establishment hosting a Drag Queen Story Hour. And inside the Sinister house is a pagan monster. The lurid occult makeup of Bughuul is similar to some of the more bizarre outfits and malevolent visages of the more lurid drag queens.
In both cases, the ultimate goal is the same: the destruction of childhood innocence.
One of the most powerful things about horror movies is that, unlike romantic comedies or superhero movies, there’s no guarantee that the protagonist will survive. In films from The Exorcist to Hereditary, characters the audience comes to like get destroyed, often by their own sins.
Likewise, the sad truth about things like Drag Queen Story Hour is that the pagan sexualization of children it promotes may do tragic and lasting damage to the souls of its victims.
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Mark Judge is an award-winning journalist and the author of the forthcoming book, The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs. the New American Stasi. He is also the author of God and Man at Georgetown Prep, Damn Senators, and A Tremor of Bliss.
