The film opens with a home movie depicting a family of three being bound and hung up like
scarecrows with sacks over their heads in a cornfield and burned alive. It is revealed to be the nightmare of 9-year-old Dylan Collins, who is
squatting in a rural farmhouse next to a
deconsecrated church, with his twin brother Zach and their mother Courtney, who are all running from Clint, Courtney's abusive husband and Zach and Dylan's father. Dylan is visited nightly by a group of ghostly children who coerce him to watch "
home movies" of families being murdered in various ways, including being strung upside down over a lake and decapitated by
alligators (
Fishing Trip), bound and gagged, and fatally electrocuted in a flooded kitchen (
Kitchen Remodel), and tied up with
holiday lights and buried alive in the snow on
Christmas Day (
Christmas Morning). Former sheriff's deputy "So-and-So", now a
private investigator, is researching the murders connected to the malevolent deity Bughuul and burning down the homes where each murder took place before another family can move into them, including the house where the
Oswalt family massacre took place. He arrives at the farmhouse, but finds the family living there, telling Courtney he is there to investigate the church where a murder took place. Clint shows up at the farmhouse to take the boys, but leaves after the Deputy says he needs a
court order. Courtney wants to leave but the Deputy convinces her not to, knowing that leaving would continue the murders connected to Bughuul. Courtney invites him to stay overnight, and the two develop a budding romance. The Deputy meets with Prof. Stromberg, who has come into possession of a
ham radio that belonged to Prof. Jonas, who has mysteriously disappeared, revealing that the radio first belonged to a
Norwegian family from 1973. He plays a recording of a young girl yelling to her mother before killing her family and playing the piano. Prof. Stromberg reveals that Bughuul was believed to be reachable by ritual/sacrifice and to have been feeding on the corruption of innocents, with three common traits present: a murdered family, missing children, and an iconological totem/offering in the form of art as an "aesthetic observance of violence", in order to summon Bughuul. The Deputy orders Stromberg to destroy the ham radio. Zach becomes jealous of the ghost children's attention to Dylan and begins to act violently towards his brother. The children show Dylan the video of the church murders, depicting a family being nailed to the floor by their hands and feet and have rats burrow through their abdomens, leaving them to bleed out (
Sunday Service). After Dylan refuses to watch further, the children turn their attention to Zach and abandon Dylan, saying he is not their real target. Clint arrives with the court order and Courtney goes with him to protect her sons. The Deputy drives to Clint's home to warn them about the danger, but Clint beats him up and threatens the Deputy to leave. The next day, Zach films his family in an outdoor hangout. That night, Dylan contacts the Deputy for help as he and his parents lose consciousness. Courtney, Dylan, and Clint are drugged and hung on scarecrow posts with sacks over their heads in the cornfield by Clint's house (similar to Dylan's nightmare in the opening scene). A possessed Zach douses his family in three separate trails of
gasoline, lights Clint on fire, and films his death. Just as Zach is about to light Dylan on fire, the Deputy arrives at the Collins' residence, hitting Zach with his car. He frees Courtney and Dylan as they flee into the cornfield. However, Zach survives and chases after them, cutting off the Deputy's fingers with a sickle. Inside the home, the ghost children try to help Zach find them. Just as Zach is about to kill Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy manages to destroy the camera, breaking the cycle. Zach is admonished by the ghost children for failing. Bughuul appears and as punishment Zach's body decomposes rapidly, with a cloth projection screen bursting into flames, causing Bughuul and his followers to seemingly become wiped. The family flees as the house crumbles around them. Later, while collecting his things to leave with Courtney and Dylan, the Deputy finds the ham radio in his motel room. The ghost children begin speaking to him through it before Bughuul suddenly appears. ==Cast==