In crafting a look for Bughuul , Cargill initially kept to the idea of a sinister Willy Wonka before realizing that audiences might find it " silly " and kill the potential for the film becoming a series . Looking for inspiration , Derrickson typed the word " horror " into flickr and searched through 500,000 images . He narrowed the images down to 15 , including a photograph of a ghoul which was tagged simply " Natalie " . Cargill was particularly struck by " Natalie " and decided : " What if it 's just this guy ? " . He and Derrickson contacted the photographer and purchased the rights to use the image for $ 500 . Derrickson explained that the image appealed to him because it reminded him of the makeup and costumes worn by performers in black metal , while remaining unique enough so as not to be directly linked to the genre ; Derrickson had previously researched black metal while looking for inspiration for Bughuul 's symbol , which is ritualistically painted at the scene of each of the film 's murder sequences . Some of the background music for these murder sequences was taken from ambient tracks by bands associated with the Norwegian black metal scene , including Ulver and Aghast
Norwegian black metal scene
Early Norwegian black metal scene
Sinister (film)