BOOGEYMAN (2005)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Aside from the uneven 1980 horror flick, "The Boogeyman," I can't fathom on the noticeable lack of cinematic renderings of the childhood nighttime monster. I can say that John Carpenter's "Halloween" is the closest thing to some variation on a scary boogeyman. Stephen Kay's film "Boogeyman" doesn't merit equal praise or any, but it does try.
The film begins with a jumpy, scary opening sequence where a young boy senses a monster in his closet. His dad tells him not to worry and then suddenly, inexplicably, a monster grabs his dad and thrashes him in the closet. Not once, but three times. Maybe that was one too many for an old school horror aficionado like me, but the movie certainly got my attention. Cut to 15 years later, as we see that young boy as Tim (Barry Watson), who is still traumatized by those earlier events (who wouldn't be?) He has a loving girlfriend (Tory Mussett) but he can't seem to communicate with her. In his apartment, he has no closet space (no surprise there). Tim learns that his mother (thanklessly played by Lucy Lawless) is dead, though she pays a visit to his bedroom as a spectral spirit! Or is there something more, maybe incestual? Sorry to spoil it for you but not quite - no spanking the monkey here. After his mother's funeral, Barry visits his childhood domicile, has visions of the past, is still afraid of closets yet can't help but slowly open the doorknob to every closet and bedroom in the house, and people he knows start disappearing. Is this all in Tim's mind or is the Boogeyman coming to get him?
To be fair, the first two-thirds of the film had me intrigued. I was taken in by the atmosphere and those cold blue hues of a Minnesota town. I also liked the brief scenes between Tim and a former childhood friend, Kate (Emily Deschanel). And there are a couple of nice scenes with Olivia Tennet as a little girl who hides out in Tim's shed and knows a thing or two about the Boogeyman.
For scares, there are a few jolts here and there, but there are also too many flash cuts (a disturbing new trend in modern horror). The general story, though, of a man coming to grips with his past and a possibly real nightmare is avoided - it is just a setup that isn't fulfilled for the rest of the film. Mostly we have an extended promo for doorknobs - endless closeups of doorknobs. There are also various scenes of people entering or exiting rooms, or vanishing under beds or being sucked into closets that it must hold some new kind of record - a record low in horror. None of this transpires as scary or even remotely chilling. And the climactic ending is more silly than terrifying.
"Boogeyman" is hardly the worst horror film ever, and I do appreciate that director Stephen Kay ("Last Time I Committed Suicide") pays more attention to visual imagination than the requisite blood and gore theatrics. But it is a thinly-veiled, insipid horror film with an insipid protagonist who doesn't much care about anyone except his inner fears. It is the underlying rule in any horror film - you should care about the main protagonist so that the threat has urgency. "Boogeyman" simply makes too many boo-boos.
