The Boogey Man

After a flashback opening, complete with child abuse and brutal murder (in blatant HALLOWEEN fashion), THE BOOGEY MAN shifts to 20 years later. Willy (Nicholas Love) and his sister, Lacey (Suzanna Love) are now adults. Willy is unable to speak, but Lacey seems just fine. Having left their ordeal behind them, they live a seemingly idyllic life on their uncle's farm.

However, Lacey suffers from nightmares, causing her husband to take her back to her childhood home to face her fears. This isn't a good idea. A supernatural event takes place involving an old mirror. The creep factor skyrockets from this point, as a great eeevil is unleashed to cause death and destruction! A priest is called in, and the paranormal $h!t hits the fan!

Made almost entirely of grade-A cheeeze-corn, TBM is still very enjoyable, in spite of sub-par acting, dreadful dialogue, and a laughable plot. Several "scary" scenes evoke more giggles than chills. To be fair, it does have a semi-macabre atmosphere, and the story is original.

Co-stars John Carradine in an extended cameo role as Dr. What's-his-name...

While it isn't a masterpiece, this movie really doesn't deserve such a low rating. It's clearly made with love and style and even has some passable acting and effects for it's low budget. Sadly, it's nothing groundbreaking and would be quickly discarded by casuals, so that's the reason I recommend it to horror movie fans. Don't expect a masterpiece. Expect a low budget passion work that clearly has it's flaws, but can serve as a nice afternoon entertainment. 5.8/10!

This is a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story with simple special effects. It starts when through the reflection in a mirror, a little girl witnesses her brother kills their mother's lover . The weird mirror is possessed by strange spirit. Several years later, one time grown-up, this records still haunt her. She(Suzanne Love, director wife who starred many his films) is assisted by therapist Dr. Warren(John Carradine). Then, the mirror is now broken revealing again its ominous powers. Caught in a series of otherwordly events, she becomes inextricably involved in creepy murders .

This spooky movie packs terror, tight pacing, bone-chilling scenes, tension, grisly killings and numerous images have you on the edge of your seat.It's a very average little horror movie and has some cool death scenes. The film emphasizes the bloody, cruel and disgustful killings. The script stretches plausibility to the breakpoint point for a massacre final. Frightening musical score imitating partially to Mike Oldfield's Tubular bells from 'The exorcist'. It's followed by 'Boogeyman 2' continuing the plot, similar footage and new director; Ulli Lommel acted and co-written this follow-up. Furthermore recent version, very different to original : 'Boogeyman, 2005' by Stephen T. Kay with Barry Watson and Emily Deschanel and 'Boogeyman 2,' by Jeff Betancourt with Rene O'Connor and Tobin Bell.

The film is middling directed by Ulli Lommel, he's a German born actor and director with a long career in both US and Europe and known by his collaboration with Rainer W. Fassbinder and Andy Warhol(who produced him two movies : Blank generation and Cocaine cowboys). In 1988 he changed to Hollywood and directed 'Boogey man', that became in Box office success, grossing millions of dollars worldwide. Later , made 'Olivia, Brainwaves, Devonsville terror' and several movies with little budget, such as 'Black Dahlia and curse of the Zodiac', among them.

Other than "THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR" (which I didn't particularly care for). I'm fairly new to Ulli Lommel's work, but I gotta say the shoe-string budgeted "THE BOOGEYMAN" was rather a nice surprise. In spite of its stilted nature (especially the scenes involving John Carradine's psychobabble), there's something rather interesting, creative, visually enticing and uncanny around its process of a supernatural slasher. Maybe even a pioneer for the sub-genre, as what felt like a thematic blueprint, still with some slasher influences, eventually goes down its own path. How the plot goes about it early, I thought it was going to be more traditional, where we get a psychological based psychopathic breakdown (the brother), and one's attempt (the sister) to overcome their demons, but once the mirror (the evil entity's source of power) comes into the picture. There begins the supernatural interference, and it doesn't hold back.

An invisible force, POV shots, heavy breathing, floating objects, glowing neon special effects and a growing death toll, as one by one people's fates end in a rather horrific, and jolting demise. These victims just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's nothing out of the ordinary, can come across as crude, and at this point the story does begin to get sloppy in the details, yet it manages to pack a sting. Lommel's low-scale aesthetics do construct some stylish usage from its leering camerawork, moody lighting, stately rural backdrop (with a farmhouse resembling "AMITYVILLE HORROR") and minimal set-pieces. But the real talking point is that screwy electronic music score. It perfectly adds to the strange, traumatic vibe of the escalating insanity of the situations. Something that once it starts definitely won't leave your head. The acting is quite sound, and Suzanna Love shows she has quite a set of lungs on her.

"The Boogey Man" won't change your life, but if you've got eighty minutes to fill on a lazy summer evening, you could do a lot worse. The story revolves around pretty, charismatic Suzanna Love and her brother, who suddenly find themselves tormented by memories of a traumatic past. When they were children, the brother killed their mother's abusive lover...who comes back to haunt the siblings in just about the oddest conceivable manner. Derivative in spots, with a few subpar performances, but Love ably carries this relentlessly eerie film; horror icon John Carradine has a cameo as a psychiatrist who tries to convince our heroine that there is a rational explanation for the increasingly strange events in her life. Not the stuff of classics, but pretty good of its type.