Return of the Boogeyman

The original Boogeyman was a silly but entertaining supernatural slasher flick. It was by no means a great film but fun in the right frame of mind. The third instalment in this series, Return of the Boogeyman, on the other hand, is simply atrocious. It consists of two things. Firstly, cheap and lifeless new footage. Secondly, LOADS of recycled bits from the first movie. The new material is unbelievably amateurish but not in an amusingly inept way, simply incredibly tedious. This footage has clearly been knocked together quickly and without any effort. It serves as a framing device for the endless clips from the first (and possibly second) movies. And boy, do they milk those clips from the earlier films; sometimes reusing sequences over and over again. The only new addition to these parts is a voice over that pointlessly describes exactly what we can see with our own eyes. The whole experience of watching this is truly mind-numbing.

Return of the Boogeyman is an example of the very worst kind of exploitation flick; the kind that exploits the audience in a highly cynical way. I want to keep this review brief and to the point because this film deserves no more. There is nothing here of value at all. This is worthless.

"I'm finally free. Dr Love and Natalie set me free. Now I must try on my stockings. To prove to myself one last time that I am free".

What?!

Now that was unbelievably bad and quite a long 75 minutes. New and recycled footage comes together in this shoddy, patched-up second sequel. Why did I bother, well it was there... on the same disc of the original film. Over half of the film is filled with archive footage from "THE BOOGEY MAN", as a disturbed woman (Anne) commentates, or panics over the reused scenes. Literally she goes about explaining what's happening in those scenes in every detail... every detail?!

These sequences play as visions, including new footage of the faceless man (supernatural killer in the mirror wearing a stocking over his head) haunting her mind, which we learn are actually distressing premonitions. In these episodes for some reason, she keeps referring to the Lacey character (Suzanna Love) as Natalie (?!). At first I thought I was hearing things... not the case.

How the film connects all of this jumbled commotion is nonsensically dull and illogically stupid. When it's not focusing on the muted original inserts, then there's the new footage, erratically edited with wannabe artsy flashes. After a little story progression, amateurish in execution, but it's there, ultimately it settles on Annie and her therapist monotonously discussing what she saw, sometimes during her visions (where at one stage she lies naked on a mirror?!), or simply afterwards. In those moments, I couldn't help but be hypnotized by the therapist's thick, ungroomed eyebrows. They were that distracting. Well, at something managed to keep my attention.

One star for the audioless recycled film footage and of course those eyebrows.

This movie was terrible! I am a huge horror film fan and really enjoyed the first movie. Suzanna Love should be embarrassed to even be associated with this film! The entire movie consists of flashbacks from the first movie with voice over narration giving a play by play of what we are seeing! They didn't even get the facts from the first movie correct. Her name wasn't "Natalie" it was "Lacey"! It wasn't 15 years ago, it was 20! They weren't "Natalie's mom and dad" they were "Lacey's aunt and uncle"! Come on!!! And, even though they keep calling her "Natalie" they didn't bother to edit out the part (in a flashback from the first film) where her brother Willie screams out "Lacey!". I also seem to remember the narrator "Annie" stating that the boy was going to harm the mother. Seriously, did they even bother watching the first film?

In the third film of this tired series, a woman starts seeing visions from events of Lacey's nightmare in the first film.

This third entry into the series revolves around a woman named Annie who is having terrifying visions and dreams of a man with a stocking over his face. In her visions he is chasing her and trying to kill her. Annie attempts to figure out what it all means by seeing a psychiatrist who hypnotizes he. She starts seeing the events from the first film with the stocking wearing man who was murdered by young Willy. Annie also starts getting premonitions and looks into the future of murders about to happen in LA. Can she stop the murders before they happen?

Return of the Boogeyman is a no budget flashback film that is full of scenes from the first Boogeyman movie. I actually didn't hate the scenes that were actually new, but just like the sequel, there is not enough of those new moments. I'd say over 50% of this movie is scenes of the original movie and the rest is this Annie character just having visions of them and explaining to her therapist what she sees. The acting is terrible, but even worse than that is the quality of filmmaking by Lommel. It feels not only low budget but very low skill on the part of him and anyone who created the so called script this movie had.

Avoid at all costs. It's pretty much footage from the 1980 film The Boogeyman mixed in with 20 minutes of nonsensical filler.

2/10

How many times can we see the radio dropped into the tub? Painful to watch. Felt like I was being punched in the face. Not worth the $5 for the DVD.