| Boogeyman | | Cast : | Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Lucy Lawless | | Director : | Stephen T. Kay | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | February 04, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | May 31, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | HERE'S ONE TO BE KEPT IN A CLOSET.... - a rip-off movie! | Content
 | Someone in the studio said: Hurry!!... Let's make a movie about the Boogeyman before someone else does it!!... Quick! Anything will do... just get me a Boogeyman script!!
Big mistake.
Because this movie has nothing to offer. The story is dull, the characters are flat and both the script and directing go nowhere.
The story is about a kid who witnessed his dad being sucked into the closet by the Boogeyman. Years later, his mom dies and he comes back to hie weird small town to "confront his fears". His house is an old victorian house in the middle of nowhere with a funeral home appeal (church-colored windows and all).
First Major flaw: How do you make a film about a mythic monster nobody realy knows how it looks? How do you create a monster that will match all kids' worst nightmare at the same time? Look at all movie monsters. From Santa Claus to King Kong to Freddy Kruger we do know how those characters look, act and move. That's why they are such a delight to watch.
Here, nobody knew what to do in order to have a real monster. The result is that the film spends an awful amount of time avoiding the monster and depending on cheap,fast,loud outbursts of images and noises everytime the main character touches a doorknob... looks into a mirror... or falls asleep.
It is funny (and disappointing) how cheap horror movies nowadays rely on these silly editting effects in order to make the viewers jump on their seats. The result? Nobody jumps anymore because we all know the half-second outburst of loud images is coming when we see the guy's hand slowly approaching the doorknob. The hand goes inch by inch... suddenly half-second of woosh-aaargh-bang!... and then we're back: the guy opens the door and nothing happens... it was just his mind playing tricks. Duh!
Then come all those things we've seen (better made) somewhere alse. The idea of comuncating closets comes from a 1986 (good) movie called "House". The sudden alternative recreations of past events comes from (among many others) David Lynch. The bird against the windshield AND the eerie old house come from Hitchcock. The girl we are not so sure is a ghost comes from "The Sixth Sense"-ish films... boy, this movie is mixed bag of:
a) stollen good ideas
b) ideas that are so bad nobody ever bothered to have them.
The vilain (the Boogeyman) is never there. And when he is, he passes fast in the background when nobody is looking. The whole movie is like this. In the end, the guy wins by doing something so irrelevant I can't even remember what it was (laughs). And yes: its look is disappointing!!! An ugly guy with an elastic body!!!! Can it get worse??? Yes, it can. Because...
...Obviously, the closet will open again for a direct-to-DVD sequel. Want some advice? Buy some naftballs and keep the doors locked.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Basically, it's 86 minutes of one man having a staring contest with a door. | Content
| If anyone's career survives after this film, well, THAT is scary. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Again I've Been Tricked By Commercials... | Content
| Supposedly motivated by suspense horror, this film is based upon a man's memory of his past childhood which became more true than he would let his conscience believe. Tim (Barry Watson) confronts his past in order to relieve his present stance of the memory that burdens him daily as he pursues to live a normal person's life.
Taking the advice of his girlfriend and a woman whom he knew as a younger boy after the incident, he journeys back into the old house which he tries to forget. During his stay there, he not only found out the truths of the myth of the Boogeyman (Andrew Glover), his past has also been reintroduced into his life and plays back in his mind like a film he thought he had forgotten and put aside long ago.
Through all the mystery he comes upon the truth of his childhood which haunted him so, about his Dad's death that very night as he was a little boy. He also came upon the truth of the missing children and the old man who tried to capture the Boogeyman himself, single-handedly.
Like I said, a suspense-filled film. The disappointment came with the single fact that the movie failed miserably at the end, like an old horror flick from the 80s. The Boogeyman himself wasn't as well thought out as one would hope and being a big factor, the role of the boogeyman should be more dramatic and significiant than what it is in this movie. Even though a disappointing movie, it is still "alright" and not a horrible and total disappointment of a film. The myth of the boogeyman therefore is shamed by this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | How NOT to make a horror film... | Content
| You can learn a lot about how NOT to make a horror movie by watching this film. The plot concerns The Boogeyman - literally, not metaphorically, as Halloween did. It begins with a terrified little boy in his bedroom, in the dark, looking nervously at his closet and other menacing objects around the room. Now, problems with the movie begin right here. Nobody, I mean NOBODY - not even Rob Zombie - would have a room this creepy for a child. Who would painstakingly arrange clothes and a baseball bat on a rocking chair to look like a scary monster? When the little boy's father comes in to investigate, he is sucked into the bedroom closet, never to be seen or heard from again.
Cut to many years later; the little boy has now grown up into an extremely nervous, but good-looking young man. His mother's death forces him to go back to his old house where the Boogeyman lives. Now things begin to go REALLY wrong with the movie. First off, it gets the tone wrong. The filmmakers try to make EVERY moment creepy - even when nothing is happening. You just can't do that - horror films need moments of calm reality before going off into moments of high-tension. Try to keep the tension high at all times effectively nullifies it in this film.
Next, the film makes no logical sense. Characters just do things that can't be explained by any other reason than "it advances the plot." Why would the hero spend so much time alone in a house with the Boogeyman? The mythology of the movie doesn't make ANY sense either. What is the Boogeyman? Is he omnipotent? Where does he come from? What, exactly, does he do with his victims?
As the film lumbers towards its conclusion, things get completely surreal. The hero goes into "closetland" - for lack of a better term - to fight the Boogeyman. The audience gets completely lost in this convoluted chase. The payoff - a lame, CGI monster - dispels any sense of dread that might have been created. And then the movie just stops. There is a moment when we ask, Is that all there is? That's all there is. I hope there isn't a sequel.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Good movie flawed | Content
| At the start of the movie,the boogeyman looked as though it was going to be a good horror movie,but soon changed.This movie is more of a phycological thriller than a true horror movie,like the Grudge.All in all it was an enjoyable film with an interesting plot and set of characters.The story is about a man named Tim, who as a child of 8 saw his father taken by the boogeyman.Tim,now 23,is terrified of closets,small rooms,and tiny openings. |
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