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Movie Review - Boogeyman (2005)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Stephen T. Kay |
| Starring: |
Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, and Lucy Lawless |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for intense sequences of horror and terror/violence, and some partial nudity) |
| Length: |
86 minutes |
| Genre: |
Horror |
| Tagline: |
You thought it was a just a story... but it's real. |
| Studio: |
Sony Pictures |
| Website: |
Boogeyman |
| Release: |
February 3, 2005 |
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PLOT
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Scarred by the tragic events surrounding his father's disappearance fifteen years ago, Barry Watson returns home
following another tragic event in the family and finally forces himself to face his childhood fears. Barry Watson's
attempt to stretch his resume beyond 7th Heaven ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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In what could be a scene stolen straight out of Darkness Falls, Boogeyman opens in a young boy's bedroom
late at night. Various objects and shadows appear to materialize, constantly preventing the boy from falling asleep.
To make a long story short, his father comes in to relieve his fears, gets snapped up by the "Boogeyman," and 15
years later Barry Watson is a guy who is scared of closets and likes to wear gay snowflake sweaters.
When Watson is forced to return home due to a family emergency, he decides to spend the night at his old home, now
abandoned, in an attempt to conquer his fears. What proceeds is a movie that's light on story but heavy on fog,
heavy on slow walking, and heavy on a creaking house. Seriously, after a while I started to think I was watching
the movie in the hull of a ship.
I'll give the movie credit; it does a decent job of creating a creepy atmosphere. Unfortunately, story is
sacrificed for the sake of ye olde jump scene, of which there are many. I would also complain about the lack
of dialogue, but with actors like these, that's actually a GOOD thing. So I'll focus my complaints on the weak
story. There's just no rhythm or flow to the plot. I dare you to try to figure out the exact timeline of the
movie. Perhaps this is by design. We witness one weird vision/occurrence after another, and pretty soon we
just don't know what's going on. Is it all in Watson's head? Is he smoking something? Schizophrenic perhaps?
Is he just a psycho? Is someone trying to frame him? Or is there an actual Boogeyman?
About halfway through the movie, a strange little girl asks Watson the same question. His response? "There's
no such thing as the Boogeyman." Imagine my shock when James Brown appeared out of nowhere, said, "I beg to
differ," and then danced a little jig. I'm sorry, but that took me right out of the film...
*ahem* Anyway, like I was saying, I think the writers intentionally made the timeline as confusing as possible
to try to keep us from guessing what's actually going on. That's fine, but when the end credits finally roll,
we should be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and get a picture of what exactly happened.
Unfortunately, the only picture I saw was of a group of writers standing around not really knowing how to
wrap things up in a halfway sensical manner.
Chances are, after the extremely lame ending, you'll be left with a lot of questions. What happened to Watson's
girlfriend? When exactly did he develop that double chin? If Watson was really so scared of closets, and weird
things seemed to happen in them, then why didn't he get a camera crew to try to document it? Should anybody be
offended by the Boogeyman finally *drum roll* coming out the closet? Bwahahaha!
Rather than weave a genuinely creepy tale, Boogeyman seems more intent on cashing in on another figment
of our childhood imagination through the use of atmosphere and jump scenes. Admittedly, that approach was
effective enough to keep me awake for about an hour and a half, but it didn't grab anything other than my visual
and aural attention, and that's certainly not enough to demand you spend the big bucks to see it at the theater.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Budget: $20,000,000
- Was originally supposed to be a straight-to-video release.
- Sam "Evil Dead" Raimi is a producer for the movie.
- Barry Watson's 7th Heaven colleague, Jessica Biel, made a much better horror movie - The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre.
- Lucy Lawless, aka Xena, had a role that amounted to little more than a cameo.
- Emily Deschanel's sister, Zooey, was Will Ferrell's singing co-star in Elf.
- Barry Watson was in Sorority Boys with Michael Rosenbaum who was in Poolhall Junkies with Rick
Schroder who was in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died with Michael Greene who was in The Road Killers
with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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This really isn't all that offensive. I don't remember any bad language, and the "partial nudity" consists of
a girl's back as she's getting into the tub. There's a scene where she starts flailing around in the very same
tub I just mentioned, but everything is so fast that you don't see anything. Some scenes may be a little too tense
for the youngsters, but that's about all you need to be concerned with.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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Well, the trailer was a little weird, but it didn't produce any big misconceptions.
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THE GIST
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If you scare easily, and you're desperately in the mood for a movie, any movie, with a dark
atmosphere and a handful of jump scenes and you don't mind a total lack of story, then
Boogeyman may provide you with moderate entertainment. Otherwise, save it for a rental
or catch it in a few months when it's airing on TNT or USA.
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