#baghul

an excellent and viable strategy. is there really any other reason to join the mages’ guild

counter-fact: my thief was never approached by brynjolf. she only ended up joining the thieves’ guild because she (a petty burglar with a fondness for keeping nasty sewer animals as pets) went into the ratway looking for. well. actual rats

she did find rats! in abundance! the crime ring was a surprise, though!

Okay, so, I am actually writing this as I am watching the movie; it's unprofessional but it's my blog and I'll either do it my way or not at all :p  Oh, btw:

SPOILER ALERT!  THIS IS A SPOILER HEAVY, IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE FILM!

Horror is my favourite genre and, as a writer, it's actually one of my two specialised genres, the other being Dark Fantasy.  Bearing this is mind, it's rare for a horror film to impress me, let alone scare me and the only other one released recently that impressed me was Dark Skies.  Anyway, onto the film...

Ethan Hawke stars as a true crime writer named Ellison who's looking for his next big hit.  He hasn't had a hit in years and has become very cynical, very all about the money, no care for the people.

The actual opening of the film is actually very disturbing and shows a family being hanged (NOT 'hung') from a tree.  The reason this is so disturbing is that it's silent, well, silent apart from the sound of a film reel clicking over.  This type of imagery, to me, is genius as it's not relying on a jump scare (which is startlement; more on that at some time), it's aims for terror and comes close (for me).  I've actually never seen anything like it.

So, cut to Ellison, his wife, son and daughter as they move into the house of the family who just got hanged and it is shown that the daughter likes to paint the walls and is only allowed to paint them in her room.  It is also quickly established that the local Sheriff doesn't like him and thinks he's disrespecting both the world of the police and the memory of the family.  They also mention that a girl from the family is missing.

Hearing a noise, Ellison goes up to the attic and finds a box of Super 8 films (if you don't know what it is, look it up, it's easier than my garbled explanation) all of them showing families being killed in brutal, disgusting ways.  All of them silent, except for the clicking of the projector reel.  Ellison decides to set up the projector and watch them.

The first one is the family hanging from the tree, however, this time we see the missing daughter swinging on a tire swing while out with her family (I mention this for a reason) and, me being me, I already have a pretty good idea of why she's missing.  'Missing' and not 'Dead' because she's not hanging from the tree.

A small observation, the tree can't be the same one as is in the garden as it's far too close to the house.  The one in the clip is a decent distance away.  However, it IS mentioned in the film that this is where it happens.

He loads up the next reel.  This one shows another family fishing before cutting to all but one of them being locked in a car then the car being set on fire.

Just as Ellison goes to load up the next reel, he hears creaking throughout the house and finds his son inside a moving box screaming an un-earthly scream.  Believe it or not, this is put down to "night terrors" and I hope I never get his bad dreams.

The next day we see the next reel, a new family having fun in a swimming pool then cut to them being tied to lawn furnature and pulled underwater.  All but one of them, anyway; notice a pattern here.  However, this one is slightly different as the camera pans away from the drowning family and focuses on a strange figure standing in the water. ( https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/2711234929/d1e11fd9f136b8e7704fdd43e1e3ea2c.jpeg )  Just as Ellison goes for a closer look, the whole reel catches fire.  He uses the internet and fixes it.

The kids are home from school and the son is in trouble!  What for?  He's only gone and drawn the scene of the hanging tree on a whiteboard in permanent marker.  I also inwardly cringe as the wife says "Your book is about a family who was hung?"  It's hanged!!!

Cue next movie reel.  A light, carried by we don't know who, moves through a house up to people tied up and gagged on their beds before they each get their throats sliced.  Lovely.  In this footage, Ellison spots a strange symbol ( http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcfd4olfH21qd337ko1_500.png ).  He looks the case up on the internet and, hey, what do you know, a child is missing.  Cue more mysterious house noises as the lights go out!  Say it with me "Cliché!"

We could say, this is about the point where shit starts going down!  Ellison starts wandering around with a torch and the loudest possible noises start happening; i.e. a door swinging closed with the power of a cannon ball being shot into a wall.  This ends when he finds a child's drawing of all these murders (all with an additional character called 'Mr Boogie') and him falling through the attic.

Next day (I think...most of this movie happens at night!) he recruits the police deputy to help him out in finding out about the other families in the videos.  He has a quick look back at the good old days then gets back to work.  He suddenly starts seeing Mr Boogie and the symbol in all of the reels as he re-examines them.  Enter the famous "moving picture" scene.  It's in the trailer; if you've seen the trailer, you've seen it.

Suddenly, his daughter becomes interested in learning how to make Ellison his cup of coffee that he's really fussy about and likes made in a particular way.  It's standard black coffee.  Weirdly, there's a new clip on his laptop (oh yeah, he's saved the footage on his laptop!) of his falling through the attic and loads of ghostly little hands.  By this point, I know what's going down.

Now, some other noise has woken him up and projector is running, showing the hanging tree.  He looks out of the window, thinks he sees Mr Boogie in the bushes and for some mad reason he runs out there.  Actually, his son is in the bushes having a Night Terror.  There is also a really angry dog growling in the garden and a very nice cut back to Ellison with a nice "it's behind you!" moment.  And the 'it' is not Mr Boogie.  You should have a good idea what's behind him by now.

Enter Deputy Fanboy who is filled in on the other cases, spots Mr Boogie and hands over a number to a professor who just happens to study this weird stuff.  However, we can't call him yet, we have another reel!  Possibly the most horrible.  I don't want to spoil this one, it's known as "The Lawnmower Scene" and you're gonna have to watch it for yourself.

A chat with Prof Jonas reveals that Mr Boogie is actually called Baghul (or Baghuul?) and he lives in pictures of himself.  He is also known as "The Eater of Children" and he needs to eat their souls to survive.  Naturally, people tend to destroy pictures of him, what with him out to eat their children.  Well, everyone except Ellison that is; being a dumbass, he still has them plastered all over his wall.  We have a smart hero.

3am (man horror movies love 3am!) and Ellison wakes up to find the projector running AGAIN, chalks it up to someone being in the house, and starts to wander around with a baseball bat.  Enter a ghostly game of hide and seek that I personally find to be my favourite scene in the movie.  It's eerie, it's shot well, I like the sound effects and the jump scare made me jump.  It is cheesy however but my love of it comes down to personal taste and the type of imagery I find creepy.  Including a scene in the daughters room that refers to her love of painting the walls and the missing girl.

Deputy Fanboy turns up again (says the word 'hung'!!!!) and puts all this down to the horror genre's favourite diagnosis; STRESS!  The daughter is in trouble!  She's been painting on walls that are not in her room and guess what's she painted?  The missing girl on the tire swing that I mentioned earlier! (The wife says 'hung' again!  Excuse me while I go find the writers...)  After an extremely brief meeting in the attic with Baghul and 5 creepy children, Ellison finally comes to his senses and burns the reels.  He also decides, fuck it, I've had enough of this, we're going back!  So they move back to their old house, which is much creepier than this one.

Deputy Fanboy phones up and basically solves the case for him which, I believe, is a first for horror films.  Anyway, basically, what's going on is that all of the family is being murdered except for one child and each family happens to have lived in the previous family's house.  Follow?  So, Ellison and co lived in the house of the Hanging Tree family, wonder what's happening next?  If you don't want to know, STOP READING NOW!

Ellison hears a noise in his attic and finds the projector and the super 8 films again however, these are the special extended editions of the films and they show what everyone besides Ellison has figured out.  

THE KIDS KILLED THEIR FAMILIES!  And Deputy Fanboy has just told him he's next.  Does he put it together?  Nope.  His daughter turns up with his coffee.  And I'll leave the rest to you ;)

SCORE: 8.5/10

I gave it this score because, yes, there are major setbacks however in that you know what's happening really early on (possibly) and it can be infuriating how clueless Ellison is even when everything is spelled out to him.

However, the atmosphere of the film is fantastic and really draws you in. Some scenes are genuinely creepy and people who are easily disturbed by imagery will have a hard time getting Baghul out of their heads as he is incredibly well designed and very disturbing to look at.

Feel free to let me know your own thoughts on the film.