Deconstruction: Religious Cult Symbols in Sinister

SINISTER:

The plot of Sinister is based around a Pagan Sumerian deity named Bughuul, who would kill entire families so that he could take their children into his realm and consume their souls. He mainly targets children because they are extremely vulnerable to dark magic, and are easy targets because they don't have an extensive knowledge of this world and don't know right form wrong. 

This picture is of one of the children that lost her soul to Baguul. In the film he is often referred to as "Boogey Man" which is often used to make children behave. 

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This is the symbol of Baghuul which is shown throughout the film, mainly on the super 8 footage that Ellison finds in his attic, on some footages this symbol is harder to notice than others. 

A specialist in the film sends this to the writer as a reference to the history of Baghuul. These were drawings done a long time before the murders started, both feature the symbol of Baghuul, however the one on the left has a dog in it and the one on the right has a snake in it.
In the film there is a scene just after the writer watched the super 8 tape of the family drowning where he found some drawings on a box lid, underneath the lid however was a snake, just like the picture on the right.
Another scene features a dog, where the writer goes out into the garden where the last family was hung and he gets startled by a rottweiler, again exactly like the picture on the left. 

Early Christians believed that Baghuul actually lived in these images, and that they were gateways into his realm. They believed that he would take posession of those who saw the images, and cause them to do terrible things like murder their family. Some believed that he could also abduct the viewer into the image.