Other Names: Bagul – The Eater of Children
First Appearance: Sinister (2012)
Most Iconic Form: Pale, corpse-like face with long black hair and deep-set eyes, glimpsed in grainy Super 8 footage
Kill Count: 10+ families across multiple decades — through child proxies
Portrayed by: Nicholas King (physical), voiced by various sound designers
Sinister (2012)
Directed by Scott Derrickson, Sinister follows true crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), who moves his family into a home where a gruesome murder occurred. In the attic, he discovers a box of Super 8 reels — each documenting a different family’s brutal demise, including drowning, hanging, and burning.
The footage is eerie and disturbingly quiet — until small, chilling details emerge. In each film, lurking in the background or reflected in the grain: a pale figure in black — Bagul.
As Ellison investigates, he uncovers the legend of Bagul, an ancient Babylonian deity who consumes children’s souls. His MO:
- A child in each family commits the murders, then disappears
- Bagul uses images and media as gateways to enter the physical world
- The more Ellison watches, the deeper Bagul invades — infecting his mind, home, and children
The film ends in bleak tragedy: Ellison’s daughter, possessed by Bagul’s influence, murders the family and creates her own Super 8 “masterpiece.” Bagul appears, lifts her into his arms, and vanishes into the film reel.
Sinister 2 (2015)
Directed by Ciarán Foy, Sinister 2 follows Courtney Collins, a mother hiding with her twin sons Dylan and Zach in a remote farmhouse. She’s fleeing her abusive ex-husband — but the family has unknowingly moved into one of Bagul’s hunting grounds.
Unlike the slow-burn mystery of the first film, the sequel introduces the Super 8 tapes early and often. Dylan, the quieter and more sensitive twin, is haunted by ghostly children — former victims of Bagul who pressure him to watch their “home movies.” These children, acting as Bagul’s mouthpieces, are manipulative, eerie, and oddly casual about the horrors they inflicted.
The tapes in this installment are even more elaborate and sadistic than before:
- Rats being eaten alive inside a person
- Electrocution in a flooded kitchen
- Family crucifixion and burning in a cornfield
Each snuff reel is presented with a haunting musical motif and stylized grain, cementing Bagul’s influence as not only supernatural but aesthetic — almost cinematic in how he stages death.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Bagul is targeting Dylan as the next child to “create” for him, even as Courtney and Deputy So-and-So (returning from the first film) try to stop the cycle. Meanwhile, Zach — the more aggressive twin — begins to resent being overlooked, opening the door for Bagul to twist sibling rivalry into fratricidal rage.
Bagul himself appears more frequently, lurking in static, screens, and shadows. His power is no longer mysterious — it’s systemic. He doesn’t just consume souls. He cultivates violence in children, molding them into miniature auteurs of murder. His absence of dialogue makes him even more disturbing; he lets the kids do the talking — and the killing.
Despite efforts to break the cycle, Bagul wins again: Zach is fully corrupted, and the house burns, but not before another tape is created and hidden — ready for the next family to find.
Physiology & Lore
- An ancient pagan deity, possibly Babylonian or Sumerian
- Feeds on the souls of children, but only after they’ve murdered their families
- Uses images and recordings (Super 8, drawings, even sound) as entry points into our world
- Can remain hidden in media, manipulating from afar
- Communicates through ghostly children, who serve him even in death
- Not physically aggressive — Bagul is a psychological predator, patiently corrupting his prey
- His presence causes:
- Nightmares, sleepwalking
- Hallucinations
- Violence and artistic obsession in children
- Always takes the final child, carrying them into the film reel
Cultural Impact
- Considered one of the scariest modern horror monsters, thanks to subtlety and dread
- The Super 8 kill tapes are praised as some of the most unsettling horror sequences of the 2010s
- Often compared to:
- Slender Man
- Moloch from Archive 81
- The demon from Hereditary (Paimon)
- Inspired real-world creepypasta and fan theories
- Sinister is frequently cited in “scariest film ever” lists — including a scientific study that measured audience heart rates
- Bagul’s appearances are always silent, brief, and terrifying
League Placement
Bagul belongs in the Second Class Tier — an entity of great power and fear, but bound by a very specific ritual pattern. He doesn’t terrorize the world — just one family at a time. His subtlety, style, and lore make him unforgettable… but he’s still watching from the reel.