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Back Shelf Beauties
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Boogeyman I have to admit, one of the most vivid nightmares of my life is one starring the Boogeyman and experienced when I was 5-years old, but I still remember it. Since we all have had such fears and dreams, Boogeyman is a film that captures your attention and makes you wonder if the movie's Boogeyman is as scary as the one you have in your mind. It might not be as scary, but the movie is not a complete waste of time. Barry Watson stars as Tim - a twentysomething who has been haunted by his belief that the Boogeyman is after him. Granted, you would think the same thing if, when you were 8-years old, you saw your Dad get captured by some evil demon in the middle of the night, never to be seen again after he disappeared into your closet screaming from pain (Dad disappears into the closet? Am I supposed to see some sort of symbolism?). Fifteen years later, Tim is required to return to the family home, and he wants to settle this battle once and for all. It's time for a smackdown! Is Tim haunted by the Boogeyman, or is he going crazy? Boogeyman is not all that bad. It's not a winner or a must-see, but you can do much worse. Director Stephen Kaye does a good job creating a spooky atmosphere with danger lurking around every corner, under the bed and in the closet, but the script from writers Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White (please tell me you made up that name) is short on dialogue and intelligence, while running out of steam towards the end (they make Tim jump to a huge conclusion based on very little information to back it up). Boogeyman mostly consists of our hero running from place to place, sitting in a state of shock and suffering from confusion, but our writing team never thought it would be a good idea for the hero to make an attempt to understand his plight. How come Tim isn't trying to learn more about the Boogeyman by studying various writings about his legend, much like a good episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer? How come he goes through 15 years of terror, but never does much but hide from things that go bump in the night? Instead of being driven by intellectual curiosity and using his brain, Tim just reacts by attempting to match violence with violence, which is a fight you can't believe he can win against an all powerful being, if he is battling an all powerful being (you don't think I am going to give away the plot, do you?). Kaye does his best to insert as much action as possible, especially in a juicy opening sequence that establishes the movie's background, but Tim needs more depth and the writers could have come up with less cliché devices (the house in the middle of nowhere, a creepy kid, the girlfriend who will face peril, the girl next door who gets wrapped up in it all when trying to help). The acting is nothing to write home about, the special effects should be better, and the mystery needs to be denser, which makes Boogeyman short of being good enough to recommend. I'd like to see what Kaye could do with a better script and more money. 2 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2005 - WaffleMovies.com
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