Boogeyman Movie Review: By Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com

Boogeyman is the latest film released by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Productions. While it is better than the dreck it clearly resembles (i.e. They, Darkness Falls, and The Darkness), it’s hardly a memorable entry into the increasingly sagging horror genre. Anyone associated with the creative force that is Sam Raimi, should be capable of much more. Boogeyman makes very little sense. Had it developed a gloomier tone and unveiled characters worth giving a damn about, I could have forgiven it for it’s ridiculous lapses of logic. Alas, that’s too much to ask for.

In Boogeyman, Barry Watson plays Tim Jensen, a young man re-visited by a supernatural force that he claims burst from his closet and murdered his father when he was just a little boy. Naturally, Tim’s mother subscribes to the theory that her husband just walked out on the family, as apparently, the mans body was ever recovered. Years later, Tim still has trouble sleeping with the lights off and strange occurrences lead him to believe that an ominous force from his past, has returned for another go ‘round.

Why the "Boogeyman" waits fifteen years to return, I’m not entirely certain. In fact, there are several elements of this picture that left me in a state of such complete and utter confusion, that I’m not even going to bother going into them. I mean what’s the point. It’s clear that director Stephen T. Kay isn’t particularly interested in plot. Sadly though, he isn’t competent enough to make Boogeyman the old-fashioned ghost story, funhouse, thrill ride, it thinks it is. And it’s too bad really, because the movie is very well shot. There just doesn’t seem to be anything holding it together. It’s just a loose and, at times, random collection of elements from much better horror movies.

Boogeyman does have some surprisingly effective visuals, particularly towards the end of the film. It also offers up a couple of nifty "WHAT THE F**K?" moments. Take for instance an odd sequence in which Tim walks through a hotel bathroom door, and finds himself exiting the closet of a house several miles away. Why does this happen? Again, I’m not really sure. Apparently, he’s traveling through the same portals that the Boogeyman travels through. Who the hell knows?

Dare I even go into this film’s performances? Actually, they’re not half bad. Don’t get me wrong. There isn’t one three dimensional turn to be found, but the cast does fine with what they’re given, particularly lead Watson. The sort of dazed, confused looks that surface on his face whenever he takes part in one of the previously mentioned "WTF? moments, are effective, and he does a good job playing scared. For what it’s worth, as stock as his character is, he does a better job here than Sarah Michelle Gellar did in The Grudge.

Many of the scares in Boogeyman are of the cheap variety, and are very reminiscent of similar such jolts produced by the insipid Thirteen Ghosts. You know the drill – a quick jump cut, accompanied by a loud noise and a deafening music cue.

I didn’t particularly like Boogeyman but then I didn’t entirely hate it either. I applaud that, at the very least, director Kay didn’t throw in one of those cliched, sequel ready endings in which the audience is treated to one last cheap scare. Perhaps my going into this picture with absolutely no expectation whatsoever, helped. Something must’ve helped.

In the end, I’m really tired of this whole PG-13 rated horror craze. I suppose there have been a handful of effective thrillers with the tame rating (The Others and The Ring spring to mind), but this genre needs a big shot in the arm. Someone with balls. Boogeyman is just another forgettable entry in a genre that’s frighteningly bereft.

Grade: C-

Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com