Boogeyman

Imaginative direction from gifted film maker Jeffrey Scott Lando brings depth and meaning to what is more than just a horror story. Working from a fine script by screenwriter David Reed, Lando's film is a truly terrifying movie while at the same time being a sensitively observed study of a single father trying to raise sons on his own. It's in this aspect of the drama that the film finds its greatest strength and significance. Eddie McClintock is utterly superb in his role as that father, a police officer struggling with his patriarchal mission, a romantic relationship, and his job in law enforcement. With three important duties, he has difficulty as to which deserves the most attention at any one time. Still grieving the death of his wife and attempting to deal with possible PTSD, McClintock does remarkable work with his character. It's certainly one of his finest performances to date. Emma Samms is also excellent as a police chief under extreme pressure to end a horrific killing spree by an unknown entity that even spreads to the confines of her own station. Beautifully made and artistically realized, Boogeyman offers the audience much more than the title implies. Much more indeed.

The Sci Fi Channel has always had a reputation for bringing low-budget movies that, however absurd or ridiculous they may be, turn out to be highly entertaining and enjoyable. On this occasion, the company presents this version of the Boogeyman that, with some characteristics of said creature, uses the biblical story of Cain and Abel. What the movie shows regarding this Boogeyman in relation to the story of Cain and Abel, becomes somewhat ridiculous. A justifiable point is that the story of these two brothers has had certain versions, in one of which it is said that God punished Cain by turning him into an undead being. Of course, the Boogeyman has had different variants for a long time. The film is somewhat difficult to categorize as a horror film because it doesn't take itself seriously and parodies itself. It has some humorous moments that make you lose the seriousness of the story. The plot is simple, with several loose ends, but the goal is clearly to be a B-movie that doesn't necessarily have to be taken seriously. As for the effects, it is very common to see scenes made with CGI in these movies and the design of the Boogeyman is somewhat salvageable. This is arguably a pretty entertaining monster movie as long as you don't take it seriously. My final rating for this movie is 7/10.

When a series of strange deaths are apparent in a small town, the local authorities find them to be caused by a demon released that has a special connection to several of the residents and must stop its rampage before its target is found.

This was a decent overall entry as this wasn't one that really has a lot of bad points but not one that's really overflowing with positives either. One of the better features here is the enjoyable pace, as it's got some nice action scenes spread throughout with the different confrontations here with several high-energy scenes including the great attack on the old man, a generally enjoyable massacre on the kids in the forest and a later attack on a neighbor that gets some chilling stalking including along with the actual kill which is quite brutal. The film's two biggest scenes, though, come from the house ambush where the phone calls let them on to what's happening early on, the bedroom encounter is chilling and the different gun-battles here bring the action as well as some creepy stalking in the house's hallways gives this some better scenes, and the later encounter in the father's shack is really fun with the chaos and panic of the abduction serving as the launching point for the myriad of fine stalking scenes out in the woods picking off the members one-by-one in chilling encounters, the confrontation in the attic is highly enjoyable with a lot of action streaming throughout here and the influx of the storyline ramifications gives this one some even more fun here with how this impacts the action. While there's also some fun to be had with the creature's history and back-story, which is pretty clever and quite unique in and of itself because of what it signifies and how it's done here to link together both its appearance in the story as well as the connection to the human stories, it's got enough to really like here that gives this one some positive points against the film's big flaw. The problem here is basically a common grievance in having the one character who knows what's going on and how to stop it keep that information to themselves, forcing everyone else to deal with the situation without knowing what to do themselves. It's gradually apparent here that something's happening and there's little reason to think that would've been accepted and useful from what's happening, but rather it's all kept here that way instead. As well, the film's decision to handle the bullying aspect here is somewhat mishandled here as this spends quite a bit of time here setting it up only to drop it without really giving it any real purpose at all, since it doesn't really have any point in helping them overcome the creature, none of the bullying provides the strength to battle it later and the creature never gives them any kind of comeuppance or even accidental revenge as it just drops the thread altogether which makes such a questionable and controversial angle to have been included at all. Along with some usual atrocious CGI, these problems do affect it but overall it's pretty decent.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity, strong themes of bullying and children-in-jeopardy.

Boogeyman (2012)

** (out of 4)

Average SyFy production has brothers going into a creepy house and accidentally letting loose the title character, a burned faced monster who can kill with its bare hands. Soon the boy's father (Eddie McClintock), a cop, is investigating while his partner/lover (Amy Bailey) might know more than she's telling. BOOGEYMAN (there's no "the" before the title) is certainly far from the majority of the bad movies that turn up on SyFy but at the same time its not that good either. In reality this turned out to be one of those movies that features some interesting things in it but they never really add up to be a good movie. Everything here from the direction to the performances are good but there's just something missing from the film. I think it would have helped had there not been the entire Biblical thing going on. I'm not a moralist or anything, I don't object to religion being used but I just didn't think it worked here. Another problem is that none of the characters are all that interesting and since we spend a lot of time with them, it certainly would have helped to make them more likable. Again, I thought the performances were rather good and this includes the two leads. They share a nice chemistry together and they certainly overcame their weak characters. I also really enjoyed the look of the monster. The burned, skull-like face was very effective and I thought it was one of the better monster designs I've seen in a while. His killing power was also fun to watch. With that said, BOOGEYMAN is worth watching if you're a major fan of the genre but it's still way short of being a classic or even a good film.

OK.. not REALLY a 10 when compared to "REAL" movies. But this bit of Syfy channel horror fluff had more than the usual amount of funny quips....

The best:

"Hey, I found my cell!"....

There are quite a few more good lines.

Not a bad bit of background entertainment while you're doing something else. Doesn't take much effort to watch with your peripheral attention, and when a line does catch your ear, a chuckle may follow.

The characters were much more fully developed than what is typically found in these disposable scifi/horror shows. This also sets this movie apart than the norm.