Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
Back in 2012 mega horror production house Blumhouse Productions, headed by Jason Blum, introduced the world to a new horror villain, Bughuul. Bughuul was the malevolent force that tormented Ethan Hawke and his family in the creepy film Sinister.
This week the sneaky spirit is back once more, this time setting his sights on the young son of Shannyn Sossamon in Sinister 2. Last time around Bughuul made a impression with his startling visual and his ability to materialise out of nowhere, inducing trauma in audience members across the globe. For the most part though Bughuul, aka Mr Boogie, was shrouded in mystery, something that the new film seeks to unravel.
Ever wanted to know what it’s like to play a horror villain? Well now’s your chance as we sat down with stuntman Nicholas King, who has played the iconic monster in both films.
Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
So how did you come to play Bughuul?
Actually my dad was the stunt coordinator for the LA portion of the first one so he told me about it. Me and my brother and about five or six other guys just went to it and the director picked me.
Did that cause any issues for you and your brother?
I don’t know, I’m sure he gets jealous every now and then that I travel all over the place and I’m sure he would have loved to have done that, but he never really said anything to me. I’ve told that story a million times and no one’s ever asked about my brother. That’s interesting.
Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
As well as playing Bughuul you’ve also done a lot of stunt work, what’s the favourite thing you’ve done?
I did explosions on The Green Hornet, that was pretty fun. They drove a car into the house and then they kind of blew up the house with me and my other brother, and then two other stunt guys. That was pretty cool. Then I did some wire-work for a film called Babymakers that was a lot of fun.
How long does the make-up take for Bughuul?
For the first one it was about three hours to put on and an hour and a half to two hours to take off. Then for the second one, it was about an hour and a half to two hours to get on and about an hour off. They kind of changed it up a little so that was a little less time consuming.
What did you do in that time?
To be honest I always just interacted with the make-up artist. We’d just talk about whatever was going on that day. Whether it be a shot list, or how his days going, how my day’s going, whatever you know. That sped the time up.
How does the second film differ from the first?
I think in the second one they transition into doing more stuff with my character, getting the back story of what I am, who I am, why I’m doing this. I don’t think it all got covered, but I think that was the difference between the first and the second one. The first one was more just flashes of me and it was Ethan Hawke‘s story.
Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
I’ve always wondered about children in horror films, how do you make a scary film without traumatizing the child actors?
Honestly for the first one, for the first day of shooting, of me shooting, I got into my costume and everyone was nervous about what it was actually going to look for. But actually when I was doing my make-up was when the kids were doing their make-up too. so they saw the whole process of me transitioning from myself to my character. I think they made it a lot less frightening for them because they saw the whole process and what I would essentially turn into. It made it a lot easier for them. They were still scared in the beginning, but I think it made it a lot easier for them when they saw the whole process of everything.
But they still manage to act scared…
It’s amazing. I don’t think I could do it at that age. They’re troopers, they’re extremely talented and they’re gonna go far.
Bughuul doesn’t really have any dialogue, how hard is it conveying everything through looks and body language?
I get that question a lot. It was different for me because I’m used to obviously using my actions and everything with my (stunt)work. So when I didn’t have any dialogue it was like okay you got to do hand gestures and body gestures, neck and head gestures. By turning your head or whatever the case may be. So it’s a little bit different for me, but ultimately it turned out well and I think everyone was happy with it.
Bughuul is part of this new wave of horror icons along with Billy the Puppet from Saw and Annabelle, who was your favourite horror villain growing up?
I mean I would have to say probably Freddy Krueger. He was always one of the ones I grew up watching. I’ve seen all of them, Michael Myers, I’ve seen all the Jason Voorhees and those guys, but Freddy Krueger always stood out in my mind. I think it was mostly that he was kind of like the most human. He didn’t walk around everywhere, he actually ran and he would just do different things that could be put into a real scenario and that’s something that I liked. It could be realistically the closet thing to a real life killer. Obviously he’s not going to walk around and not say anything to anybody, he’s going to interact with them and he’s going to talk to them.
A lot of these villains eventually get a prequel, what would a Bughuul one look like?
I really hope that they do it, and I hope if they do do it, they go back into the sixties and seventies from Sinister one, from where all those little side videos, that’s when they all were. Day camps, barbecues etc. they were all in the sixties and seventies and I think that’s what sort of my origin and it’d be awesome if they went back in time like that, but that’s just my opinion.
Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
What’s your favourite ‘kill’ film in the Sinister series?
I know my favourite and I know everyone else’s favourite. My favourite is the pool one, from Sinister. I was in the pool, underwater for a total of three hours. It was extremely tense for everyone the whole time, it had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect with timing and everything so I was really excited to see that one. I know everyone else’s favourite is the lawnmower one also from Sinister. That one is part of such an extremely jumpy part of the movie.
You’ve done some work on a new television series called Nightmares – what can you tell us about it?
So there’s a producer on that called Jim Kelley, the guy’s a genius. he’s pretty much taking everyone and having all these horror icon people tell these real life peoples stories of nightmares, of waking up and being scared. I think it’s going to be awesome. He’s doing really well with it and its due to be aired soon, I’m extremely happy for him.
So what’s your worst nightmare?
My nightmare was, I haven’t had it for a long time, but I had it a lot when I was younger. We would be playing at my elementary school and at my elementary school there’s a gate at the back that you can go through to get to the hills, that’s real. But every time I would go in through the back gate I would get pushed off and it would be a 4/500 foot cliff. I would wake up literally right before I would hit the ground. I’d be all sweaty and my whole body would be tense. That was my biggest nightmare. I would have it over and over for years. For me what was so weird was that I would wake up gripping onto the bed so tense and sweating profusely. I was always really curious about how that can even happen when you’re asleep dreaming.
Interview with Sinister actor Nick King
What are our chances of getting a Sinister 3?
I hope so. I’m not sure. My dad’s actually quite good friends with the UPM so I’m going to get him to give her a call and see if they’re going to move along with a third one or not. But I’m really hoping so. I know that the movie’s doing pretty well and usually you do another one if the one before it has done well. We’ll see. Everyone always says there has to be a whole trilogy of these, so I’m hoping so, only time will tell.
Delve deeper into Bughuuls past with Sinister 2, out on Blu-Ray and DVD from Monday 28th December.
