Boogeyman : La Porte des cauchemars

"THE BOOGYMAN" was entertaining, at the least. For me, it was more then that, but, for it's target crown, a disappointment.

The plot DID go somewhere, contrary to popular belief. The matter is it just went places we would have preferred it not to go. I liked it, but sounds like many others had some trouble. And yes, there are some gaping plot holes you could drive a truck through, but if you ignore these, you can enjoy it.

The acting of SOME characters was head on, while other needed to be cut entirely (i.e. the uncle, mysterious man entering hotel, possibly the unfinished "mother" portion) For a while there in the middle, the plot takes on a bit of a physiological thriller feeling, and starts to drop horror and suspense...i personally liked how it was changing, but most were disappointed.

The overall tone was suspenseful, (using a nice camera filter and nicely placed music) and some good jumps, but over all, this was advertised as horror, and it was not. THAT was this films biggest downfall (kinda like The Village)The camera work itself could have been improved, it kind of had that home made feel to it, and the CGI was far from scary.THings i DID like include the overall moral and point of the plot, Barry Watsons internal conflict with his paranoia, and, you have to be with me on this one...

They Did NOT leave it open for a Sequel!

Tim (Barry Watson) is a young man with a great trauma: when his father left his family sixteen years ago, in his imagination his father was indeed taken by the Boogeyman. In Thanksgiving, while visiting the family of his girlfriend Jessica (Tory Mussett), his uncle Mike (Philip Gordon) calls him informing that his mother has just passed away. Tim travels to his hometown, meets his former crush Kate Houghton (Emily Deschanel) and advised by his shrink, decides to spend the night is in old home to face the monster of his imagination. Along the night, weird events happen with Tim and his closest friends.

"Boogeyman" was really a great deception for me. I saw the trailer and I expected a promising story, exploring the fear of darkness of children through the American legend of the monster in the closet. (Note: in Brazil, we do not have the legend of the "monster in the closet". The legend of the Boogeyman does exist (it is called "Bicho-Papão"), but its location is not specified and certainly is not necessarily in a closet). However, the story is very empty, without explanation, and with an awful and ridiculous conclusion. In the DVD, there is a not good alternate ending, but better and better than the released conclusion. The scary effects and the music score are the best this movie can offer. "Boogeyman" is watchable, not a masterpiece of the genre, but also not among "the worst horror movies" as commented by some users. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Pesadelo" ("The Nightmare")

I saw this movie on a Friday it was a first date with this guy I like. In some ways this movie helped me. I spent the whole time laughing and getting to know my date. If it had been interesting we might of paid attention. This movie made me feel dumb from watching it. I have never been so happy for a movie to end. The acting was good the script was DUMB. Barry Watson walks into closets and ends up in different places and this seemed to confuse everyone in the theater. After that people started leaving....I didn't because my date spent $7 on my ticket. This movie has no purpose characters are tossed in and discarded randomly. If you REALLY must see this movie make sure you see it for free.....This movie wasn't even scary no one really jumped in surprise but many did laugh in spite. Please heed my warning....there's no point in explain the plot..there was barely a plot this movie made my head hurt!!

Boogeyman really isn't all that bad. It's an OK horror movie which provides a few scares and thrills. The problem is it should have been so much better. After all the premise-what is it that little children are scared of at night which could come out of the cupboard-is a good one,not totally original,but not too familiar either.

After a genuinely scary opening,we have our usual setting up of plot and build up for a while,than the scares start again. There is one truly effective 'jump'involving one,than a whole room full of,ghost children.There has been a lot of criticism of the way films like this and The Grudge use lots of sudden shocks and images but it works for me! However,after this great scene,the film just had nowhere to go. The hero must confront his fear,and that's it. The filmmakers attempt to atone for this by having it's characters constantly passing from one place to another in a kind of teleportation but it becomes overused and laughable. The weak climax is not scary and considerably weakened by MTV-style directing so you can't see whats always going on {a bugbear of much recent cinema}. Still,at least the monster is only shown briefly,making it more effective.

You could do probably do worse than see Boogeyman,it holds the attention for the first half at least and it's a good one for teenagers who want to be scared a bit but not actually disturbed. However,after it's over you may just want to cry "is that it?". It's very annoying when a film starts off good and promises a lot but fails to deliver.

Boogeyman is pretty much your standard horror movie which tries too hard to be different, but in reality, is about the same as every mediocre new horror movie that comes out nowadays.

Barry Watson stars as Tim Jensen, who since he was a young child, has been afraid of the Boogeyman that not only lives in his closet, but seems to be able to beam himself to any closet in the world and he uses that power to take those who Tim loves. We are treated to a decent scene at the beginning, where Tim is a child and witnesses his father being taken by the evil Boogeyman. The entire movie is basically Tim running from the dark, similar to Darkness Falls in a way.

Boogeyman does do some things right, however. For instance, it makes you wait until nearly the end to see the Boogeyman face to face, but this is very anti-climatic. You never get a clear look and when you do, it looks like a human painted black. Not much to it there. The feel of the movie was great, with the eery sound effects of the wind whistling and the house always creaking. In surround sound, this has quite a creepy effect, but when it is non-stop and in every location, it becomes tiresome. Other than a few scenes that are designed to make you jump, there is not much else to this movie. The ending leaves you less than satisfied and not even sure what just happened. I give 4.5 of 10 stars.