Complete Monster: Bughuul, the Devourer of Children, is an ancient Pagan god with a disturbing sense of humor. Initially abducting children to his underworld, Bughuul envied the sacrifices his brother Moloch received and began stealing them, causing Moloch to seal Bughuul's mouth. For centuries, Bughuul would convince the children to murder the rest of their family in sadistic ways while recording the murders in some way for Bughuul, who would then capture the children to consume their souls. Targeting the Collins family, Bughuul convinces Zachary "Zach" Collins to kill his family, but when they escape, Bughuul kills him.
The first film
Awesome Music: Everything manages to add to the movie's claustrophobic, nightmarish feeling, with highlights being:
"Silence Teaches You How To Sing" parts 1 and 2, by Ulver, used effectively in both the Family Hanging Out and BBQ films.
"Sacrifice" by Aghast, in the Sleepy Time film, to eerie effect.
Epileptic Trees: Before this movie came out (and before this movie was really explained) some people were under the impression it was a Slender Man ripoff.
Harsher in Hindsight: Part of the premise of Ethan being a writer who profits off actual crimes rings even more true in the era of True Crime podcasts and YouTubers doing that with actual murder cases, and getting complaints from people including relatives of victims for the lack of care shown. His arguments about how "their stories deserve to be told" seem familiar to anyone who's seen these types of creators too.
The whole thing with Bughuul's children making a shush gesture after EVERY FRICKIN' REEL on the "extended cut endings" gets old and cheesy after the first time, especially with the little Kubrick Stare they all give.
Bughuul looks a bit like either a member of Slipknot (seriously, compare him to guitarist Mick Thomson◊ and you'll likely never unsee it), or the Ultimate Crack Smoking Warlock, or the stereotypical Black Metal musician.
Did Bughuul always intend to corrupt Zach rather than Dylan? Or was Zach a backup plan? Or was he simply playing the boys against each other, assuming that at least one of them would turn?
It seems that Bughuul did try to corrupt Dylan, especially seeing how Dylan seems to have psychic abilities and was contacted first by Milo. It seemed that he began to corrupt Zach since he was more on the basis of rage regarding their situation There's also the fact that Dylan was a lot more resistant to Bughuul's power and Milo's control, which only lead to them Zach deciding to join them.
What were Zach's reasons for wanting to kill his family? While it is implied Bughuul corrupted him, it still made things off-putting since the beginning showed him as a Troubled, but Cute kid.
Awesome Music: "Not Saved" also by Ulver, used to chilling effect for the Christmas Morning tape.
Iron Woobie: Ex-Deputy So-and-So. He was arrested as a suspect in the Oswalt family mass murder, lost his job as a police officer due to going against the sheriff's orders to not help Ellison whom the sheriff disliked due to his unflattering self-centered reputation, gets beaten up by Big Bad Wannabe Clint Collins when he tries to warn him of the supernatural threat that Bughuul poses against him and his abused family, before finally getting two of his left fingers sliced off by a possessed Zach and getting a visit from Bughuul himself at the very end of the film. Despite all of these hardships he goes through, he still makes an effort to put an end to Bughuul's killing spree no matter what.
The trailer has one of the twin boys holding and looking into a film camera while screaming in terror. Out of context, it just looks hilarious. In context, it's not much better.
Everything about the ghost children, from the performances of the child actors to the very concept that Bughuul doles out all of his dirty work to his little kid slaves, who even have their own leader in a Bratty Half-Pint named Milo.
The Norwegian girl on the radio telling her mom to shut up because she can't hear the Bughuul over her screaming.
The sheer number of screamers and jumps. Bughuul seems more like a petty asshole than a tyrannical, soul-eating Pagan deity when he spends all of his time leering in random photographs and making antique ham radios scream.
The elaborateness of the sequel's tapes in comparison to the original film's can give off this vibe. Compare Family Hanging Out, in which the family is hanged in a silent still shot, to Fishing Trip, in which a child somehow manages to hang his family upside down above an alligator-infested marsh and have the gators reliably chomp on each head perfectly on cue.
Additionally, the sound effect used in Fishing Trip when the gator chomps on the first head is the EXACT SAME ONE used in Lawn Work in the first film, which only adds to the narm-iness.
How Bughuul scares So-And-So in the beginning of the film. Making his computer freeze, approaching him from behind (twice), and then proceeding to make his computer turn on again with his symbol. Complete with a distorted guitar riff.
Sequelitis: The first film has a mildly respectable 62% on Rotten Tomatoes. The second currently stands at an abysmal 13%.
Signature Scene: The Sunday Service and Christmas Morning home videos are both particularly memorable in very different ways.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Bughuul has been accused of this in the second film, which seemingly shows that the the ghostly kids do all of the work corrupting and goading the next potential child to murder their family and record it, while Bughuul does very little aside from standing in the background looking menacingly or doing nothing but provide jumpscares. This is especially jarring as the sequel reveals he has the ability to decay anyone he touches, thus implying that he is more than capable of killing people on his own, but delegates it to his servants because it's more convenient for him.
The Woobie: All of the families. Special mention goes to Courtney's family, especially considering she couldn't escape her abusive husband who had such immense wealth and power to manipulate people and her second son tried to kill her.
Another special mention goes to Emma's family in the Christmas Morning reel. It's really difficult not to feel a tinge of sadness when seeing how happy the family was on Christmas. Only to be buried in snow and left to slowly die of hypothermia, especially the mother.
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