Spectre

"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.

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...

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.

Dealing with a childhood trauma, Lacey and Willy must overcome their fears and survive the wrath of The Boogey Man

The movie opens up to a woman seducing a man while her two young children watch from the window, unbeknownst to them. When the kids get caught, the man ties up the male child to his bed. Lacey lets Willy loose with a large butcher knife which he uses to then kill the man who is having sex with his mother all while Lacey watches. Fast forward 20 years and we see that Lacey and Willy are all grown up, with Willie being mute from the traumatic events of that night. Lacey is also dealing with trauma of her own as she freaks out each time she sees a knife.

Her boyfriend Jake thinks it might be a good idea if she sees a hypnotist and goes back to the house where it all happened in order to move beyond the trauma. While visiting the house, Lacey sees the man from 20 years ago that was killed. After Lacey destroys the mirror, Jake decides to take it back home with them and use it in order to have Lacey face her fears. The spirit of the dead man appears to be in the mirror as it causes people to either kill themselves or get killed whenever they look into a piece of it's glass.

The Boogeyman is an odd early 80's horror flick that falls into both the slasher and supernatural horror sub genres. A lot of the movie doesn't make sense or isn't explained well enough at least. I get the angle Ulli Lommell was going for with the haunted mirror, but it fails to make a lot of sense in the film. Boogeyman takes a lot of elements from horror movies like Halloween, The Exorcist and Amityville Horror which is obvious. But blending all of those themes/sub genres together like they did in this movie left me feeling like it was a bit of a mess.

The acting was forgettable except for Suzanna Love who played the main character Lacey. She was actually not too bad in this low budget slasher. I also give The Boogeyman credit for it's overall gore and death scenes. There were some super effective killings including some neck stabbings and bloody eyes. I just expected so much more from an 80's movie with this terrific title. So much more could have been done to make this an actual scary movie.

Overall, The Boogeyman is a watchable 80's horror flick that takes many ideas from successful scary movies before it's time. I'd watch it at least once and make your own conclusions.

5/10

The Boogeyman (1980)

*** (out of 4)

As a child, Willy killed his mother's lover and all of it was reflected in a mirror and witnessed by his sister Lacey. Now, as adults, Lacey (Suzanna Love) begins to struggle so her husband recommend she go see a doctor (John Carradine). The doctor recommends she return to her childhood home and when she does she sees that mirror and breaks it. Soon a possession and murders follow.

Ulli Lommel's THE BOOGEYMAN is a rather effective horror film that I've always felt deserved to have a much better reputation. People have said it borrowed from HALLOWEEN and various possession films and perhaps it did but at the same time it has such a unique and weird atmosphere that you can't help get drawn into its story and the characters. THE BOOGEYMAN certainly deserves to be better remembered as it is quite effective.

The film shows what a talented director can do whenever he doesn't have too much money. The film has a terrific atmosphere that comes from the director's sense of style and especially the camera work. Just check out the sequence when Lacey is looking around the old house and the camera just basically floats around her making it seems as if someone is there waiting for her. The ending is also quite effective with the director using various color tints to build up a strong atmosphere.

The entire film really has a raw and creepy feel to it and all the credit must go to Lommel. The performances are a mixed bag but I think Love, while not the greatest actress, at least manages to keep us caught up in the story. You've also got John Carradine who shows up for a couple scenes, which means he was probably on the set for a day or two at most. The special effects are quite effective and especially the now somewhat notorious scissor death.

THE BOOGEYMAN has probably had its reputation lowered due to a couple really awful sequels, which is too bad because this is a rather effective movie.