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Boogeyman [2005]
![Boogeyman [2005]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KSEN3C6GL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £0.39 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Since movies began, thrillers have depended on a door just slightly ajar, with a narrow slit of darkness that promises to hold your worst fears. In the first five minutes of Boogeyman, a young boy's father is violently sucked into a closet, scarring the boy so badly that he grows up to be blank-faced Barry Watson, who plays Tim, an editor at a newspaper. Tim, to impress his girlfriend's parents, wears a coat and tie but doesn't shave his sexy stubble. A premonition of his mother's death drives him back to his childhood home so he can exorcise his phobias. From there...well, there's lots of atmospheric cinematography, regular jolts of loud music, and many quick edits. What actually happens is pretty obscure and, really, not worth unobscuring. The obsession with doors and doorknobs verges on the avant-garde. Also featuring a brief glimpse of Lucy Lawless, wearing some truly terrible old-age makeup. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Dear oh dear, oh dear...
Review date: 2008-01-23 Rating: 2 out of 10
This has to be without doubt the WORST film I have ever seen, and I am not exaggerating. I feel so strongly about it I had to write a review. That said, I suppose it might be interting to see just how bad films can be. Though on second thought, it's not worth it...I would sooner eat poo than watch this again. :)
The special effects are laughable, as is the acting. There is no suspense whatsoever. I sat with my head in my hands for most of it, through sheer bordom. And don't get me started on the extras!
And the worst bit? A SEQUEL has been made!!
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Reviews
Hate this film!
Review date: 2007-10-22 Rating: 2 out of 10
I cant stand this film,
after the grudge was so good i decided to rent this
as it says, from the prodocers of the grudge!
Boy was that a waste of my time and money.
Terrible acting, low budget effects
no jumpy scenes whatsoever and very
litle deaths makes this film one of the
worst films in history.
Boogeyman, is a film
a five year old could watch!
Entertaining to a point
Review date: 2007-09-25 Rating: 6 out of 10
I saw this film after picking up the DVD in a bargain bucket from a local store. The opening sequence of the film is a tense experience which shows the film's hero - Tim as a kid, experiencing the usual night terrors involving a closet and darkness. However, when his reassuring father is actually snatched by something in the closet in front of his eyes, the poor lad then develops a very understandable terror of closets which continues into adulthood.
Years later Tim (well played by Barry Watson)returns to his family house, following the death of his mother, after having lived away for years, and has to confront the monster that is responsible for taking his father years ago.
Barry Watson makes Tim a sympathetic hero who has to cope with the terror of his past, and a circle of family and friends who believe that his father walked out, as opposed to what he saw on that night.
The film is atmospheric and jumpy in places. Sadly though it is badly let down by a CGI monster which could have been far more effectively depicted by a live actor in make up.
Hardly a horror masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, this film is at best average entertainment from the genre. Something to bung on the DVD player and fill up a bit of dead time with basically.
AMUSING
Review date: 2007-08-30 Rating: 6 out of 10
Tim Jensen (Barry Watson) is deathly afraid of the boogeyman. After the boogeyman appears to take away his dad one night, he's sent to live with his uncle. Years later, after he's moved away, he must return home due to a family tragedy, and once again, it's time to face his childhood fears head on.
In many ways, Boogeyman exists solely as a sequence of build-ups to shock or scare scenes. While some people might argue that a large percentage of the horror genre is based on that, I would disagree (but there's not room to explain why here). Boogeyman at least makes its goals more obvious in its unusual and slightly repetitive extremes of pacing. That may sound a bit negative, but director Stephen T. Kay fairly well achieves what he set out to do. This is an effective film for its aspirations.
Much of the film is paced very slowly. Whereas some films, such as Hide and Seek (2005) are slower-paced because they have realist drama inclinations, Boogeyman only slows down to provide a contrast to its "monster attack" scenes, the idea being that the dissimilarity in tone will amplify the attack scenes. It works better than it should for such a thinly veiled technique, partially because the slow sections tend to be artistically interesting rather than boring. A lot of them are odd pregnant pauses, which naturally create a tension because of dramatic anticipation. Occasionally they are extremely poetic and surreal (as is the plot in general).
When the frenetic material comes along, the contrast can provide a shock, but on the negative side, most of the attack scenes are filmed and edited a bit too spastically, with jerky camera motions and split second cuts. It can be a bit too quick and blurry for my tastes, and reminded me of a similar technique used in Darkness Falls (2003). There are also some plot similarities to that film. In both films, the convulsive editing occasionally succeeds but just as often doesn't.
But Boogeyman is otherwise loaded with praiseworthy cinematography. Although the leaning-towards-monotone, blue-tinted look may be getting a bit clichéd, it effectively creates a mood for the film. Better are a number of unusual shots and angles inspired by producer Sam Raimi. A cockeyed backwards tracking shot down a hallway is extremely effective. This film has the most organic use of intentionally blurry shots that I've seen in some time. There is an Argento-like shot taking us inside a mechanism (a lock on a door). The film would be worth a view on this aspect alone.
However, the story is intriguing enough. Viewers not used to the abandonment of linear, logical plot lines where everything is explained may be uncomfortable with the film, but if you watch it expecting something more along the lines of a recording of an extended nightmare, you'll find it more enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the more surreal aspects. The style is closer to European and Asian horror films than traditional American films. As is typical in those films, multiple explanations of the horror behind the Boogeyman are possible, and are neither specified nor spelled out for the viewer. You have to think if you want to explore possible explanations of the film, just as you'd have to think to interpret a nightmare.
Among the many interpretations possible are that the film is largely a depiction of the main character's fears (so it's more of a personification of them than a literal series of events in the outside world), that the main character is responsible for misdeeds and the villain of the film is a kind of split personality (and much of the action is again a depiction of what's going on in the main character's mind), that the villain is a literal manifestation created from the main character's fears which has taken on a life of its own, that the villain is from a supernatural/paranormal world wherein other kinds of paranormal creatures can also exist and interact with and influence both the natural and supernatural/paranormal world. Any and all of those interpretations could also be layered so that the film is multifaceted. What writer Eric Kripke and Stephen T. Kay actually intended is not the point. The point is for the viewer to provide their own interpretation if they wish. I love that kind of ambiguity in films.
There is also at least one subtext reading possible, where Boogeyman is primarily about familial relationships, especially those surrounding child rearing. Each character in the film has a different kind of relationship with their parents, and each character's personality seems almost an inevitable product of parental influence. This determines their eventual fate, and in some cases, the personalities branch out to many other people, irrevocably affecting their lives (or deaths).
Just didn't do it for me
Review date: 2007-05-19 Rating: 4 out of 10
Looked good. But i am sad to say that it wasn't. It was actually quite boring and not scary. Basically its a man that is scared all the time and when you actually see the boogeyman at the end you can't help but laugh at how non-scary he is.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Barry Watson
Emily Deschanel
Lucy Lawless
Skye McCole Bartusiak
Creators:
Barry Watson (Primary Contributor)
Emily Deschanel (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582347920
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2005-07-04
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 85 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)