Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Feb 9, 2005 19:48:31 GMT -5
Plot:A young man traumatized by the memories of terrible events he experienced in his childhood bedroom, pertaining to a supernatural entity, is forced to return home several years later to face his fears.
Cast:
Barry Watson
Emily Deschanel
Skye McCole Bartusiak
Lucy Lawless
Tory Mussett
Robyn Malcolm
Charles Mesure
Louise Wallace
Michael Saccente
Philip Gordon
My thoughts:I was really looking forward to this movie going into it. My only question afterwards was, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!
Review:"Boogeyman" takes it's opening scene cues from another horror movie that had potential, but failed on every level to deliver,"Darkness Falls". In fact, this entire movie pretty much plays out like a more stylized and darker version of "Darkness Falls". The movie revolves around a young man named Tim played by Barry Watson, who as a kid, had a frightening encounter with the legendary Boogeyman. He watched the Boogeyman toss his dad around in the darkness of his bedroom, before taking him away for good. Now, Tims all grown up, but yet still afraid of the dark and closets thanks to what happened when he was a kid. I have to admit, the film started off pretty well, in it's opening scene, but it quickly heads downhill, express style. The major overall problem with "Boogeyman", it's not even a bit scary. It had the potential to be, but dwindled all of that potential away for cheap sound scares,creaking doors,loudly dripping faucets (I'm not kidding), and flashes of prior scenes whenever someone is attacked by the Boogeyman. Tim is trying to get on with his life, since he has a girlfriend now. But it's obvious that hes still bothered by what happened when he was a kid. Things don't get any better for Tim when as hes spending the night with his girlfriend at her parents who they visited, he gets a phone call saying that his mom has just passed away. He goes back home for the funeral, and then decides to spend the night in his old house, the house where his nightmare first began. My nightmare however, would never end until what seemed like hours later. Tim runs into his childhood friend/love interest Kate, after the funeral. We are led to believe that the Boogeyman got Tims mom, but we never find out for sure, since for some reason, the writer forgot to include what or whom exactly killed Tims mother. Was it the Boogeyman who got his dad? Or was she sick? Were never told anything.
A few scenes earlier, Tim mentions that his mom didn't take his dads disappearance too well, but thats about as close to the parental backstory as we get. The film spends most of it's time going totally nowhere. I mean the only thing close to a scare we get early in the film, is when Tims windshield is smashed into by a crow, and he barely avoids an oncoming mack truck. Tim meets a young girl named Katie, who also has had her share of encounters with the boogeyman. Tim spends most of the movie skulking around his old homestead, checking out old photos, toys, etc. Here and there we get a flickering light, or some weird noise, just to let us know, that the boogeyman is still nearby. By this point though, I had pretty much stopped caring. Theres one interesting scene where Tim finds Katies backpack she dropped in his house, which is filled with missing children posters. Nothing comes of this though, it's just used to set up a lame scene later on.Theres even one hilarious scene where Tim gets into a fight with some old stuff in the closet. Were supposed to believe that the boogeyman made a brief attempt at him, but all we see are boxes, and a light bulb being tossed back and forth. and One other scene where hes acosted by a small army of dead children. Tims girlfriend Jessica shows up to visit in the nick of time, to save the film from what could've possibly been one true scare (can't let those pesky real scares slip through in a PG-13 film). In fact, Tory Mussett who plays Tims girlfriend is the only bright spot in this movie. Shes strikingly beautiful.Her and Tim go to a hotel, and it's during this scene that a totally absent part of the plot is tossed at us. Tims girlfriend vanishes, and he thinks the Boogeyman got her. So he enters the closet, and somehow winds up back in his home. Apparently the closet has magically become a portal between both places, without any rational explanation except to keep the film moving at a dreadfully unexciting and uninteresting pace. Can the boogeyman create time rips? Or does Tims presence somehow cause Tim rips due to the encounter he had with the boogeyman as a kid? Another question thats never answered. This scene is also reminiscent of "Wes Craven Presents:They". However the difference here is, we aren't given an explanation to the closet being a portal of some sort, as opposed to "They" where it's strongly suggested that the creatures came from a dark world and are able to merge with ours in dark spaces. Tim runs into Kate as he exits the closet in his house. So Kate, and a very confused Tim ride back to the hotel.
Nothings there, except a smear of blood. Of course paranoia kicks in, and Kate figures Tims had an episode, and has went insane. Me? Well I'm still waiting for something to actually scare me in this movie. Tim finally finds out a way to defeat the boogeyman, thanks to Katie. The revelation of how to beat the boogeyman is very predictable, and who could not have possibly seen it coming? Before the final stanza, we get to see the deaths of characters that just vanished in flashbacks. One of which include Tims girlfriend Jessica in the hotel bathroom. This is pretty much the only cool scene in the film, because of the effects used in it. Everyone else gets a death similar to the snatch and run deaths the folks in "Darkness Falls" got. As if things couldn't get any worse, another way to destroy the boogeyman is created at the very end, and makes absolutely no sense considering the way to defeat him was revealed a few scenes prior. The abrupt ending puts the pevervial icing on this extremely sub par movie.
Pros:Great idea, using a legendary ghoul to center the film around. Barry Watson gives a pretty good performance. Nice dark settings.
Cons:The dark settings, and great story idea are wasted in this film, thanks to poor dialogue, and overall sheer boredom. Nothing happens to actually scare the audience in this movie. Just visit an old haunt in your area, walk around, open a few old closet doors, listen to the old floorboards as you trapsing around, and you have "Boogeyman" in a nutshell. The acting from everyone is pretty bad. Only Watson and the young actress who played Katie are the exception. Plot holes big enough to drive a mack truck through are also present just about everywhere.
Overall:Take my advice above about your local haunt, and save your 10 bucks to spend on something else. "Boogeyman" isn't worth the time or money.