Boogeyman is such a mashup of clichés and moments from other horror films, it's almost hard to review without touching on each of the films it tips it hat, or steals form, depending on your point of view. However, In the interest of time, I'm going to try and not concentrate on those films, rather on Boogeyman itself.
From this point on there ***will be spoilers*** Boogeyman is a film about a brother and sister, Willy and Lacey, how grow up in an abusive and sadistic home, with their mother, and her lover. One night, after being bound and gagged to his bed, for watching his mothers elicit affairs with her lover, Lacey brings him a knife and cuts him loose. Willy then goes into his parents room and proceeds to stab his mothers lover to death, while Lacey looks on, viewing the events from the reflection in a mirror.
The film then picks up several years later, Lacey now with a son and husband, Willy a mute, living on a farm. Lacey and Willy are both haunted by the memory of the murder of their mothers lover, and it is brought to the surface after receiving a letter from their ill mother.
Willy seems somewhat unstable, never speaking, and collecting knives very much like that which he used to kill with as a child. In an attempt to prove to Lacey there is nothing to fear anymore, her husband takes her to their childhood home. There,Lacey takes a look into the mirror which she saw the murder, and beings to see the ghost of her mothers lover. She destroys the mirror, and her husband, in a strange move, decides to take the remnants of the mirror home and piece it all back together.
We then discover that the mirror was containing the evil spirt of their mothers lover, and now that the mirror is broken, the spirit has been released, every piece of the mirror cursed with the ability to cause anyone who looks at or touches it to either kill themselves, or be killed in very strange, random ways.
This film, in concept, has an interesting premise, but it fails terribly from an execution standpoint. To begin with, the acting, with the exception of the always great John Carradine, is universally bad.
The first 30 minutes of this film seem to be filmed almost entirely to recreate the opening minutes of Halloween. Most notably, with the children peering in to their home from a first person perspective, to the first person shots of a young boy holding a knife...even the inital murder itself is shot in a way that seems not so much to take cues from Halloween, so much as it simply copies it.
The second half of the story becauses a supernatural slasher of sorts. The broken pieces of the mirror, glowing read whenever they come into contact or in the vacinity of anyone. The death scenes, while attempting to be creative, often come off looking rather cheap, and all to fake at some points. I know this film was made on a small budget, but all the better reason to rely on the suspense of the kills then trying to exectue shoddy death scenes.
It seems as though Ulli Lommel wanted the pieces of the mirror to seem like their own character in a sense, jumping off the frame, often finding themselves to the most convenient of locations. The presence of a heartbeat when the mirror pieces take hold of their victims is a nice touch, but is throne off by the sporadic inclusion of the sounds of heavy breathing, often from a first person perspective, again using the Halloween formula, but out of place when there is no person with which to associate the breathing to.
However, what pulled me out of the movie, and I don't mean to nitpick, was the music. The music in this film is all over the place. At times it feels as those it is taken from other films, or has suffered at the hands of bad editing. Ominous music seems to play most often at moments in the film where no suspense or tension is being built, leaving the music strangely out of place. It often switches from a heavy synthesizer sound, to a Halloween/Exorcist sound, heavy on a piano. The music also suffers in that it often ends so abruptly throughout many scenes, often times making it seem as though the scene had been editing or cut in some strange fashion.
I applaud the the director for using a unique storyline, it is not often that a film combines both the slasher and supernatural element without losing everything. However, plot holes, along with the mentioned poor acting simply make the film feel awkward and clumsy, sadly falling to typical clichés and a rather unsatisfying ending.
For Horror and 80's Enthusiasts only. I doubt the casual moviegoer will find much here to truly captivate them.
From this point on there ***will be spoilers*** Boogeyman is a film about a brother and sister, Willy and Lacey, how grow up in an abusive and sadistic home, with their mother, and her lover. One night, after being bound and gagged to his bed, for watching his mothers elicit affairs with her lover, Lacey brings him a knife and cuts him loose. Willy then goes into his parents room and proceeds to stab his mothers lover to death, while Lacey looks on, viewing the events from the reflection in a mirror.
The film then picks up several years later, Lacey now with a son and husband, Willy a mute, living on a farm. Lacey and Willy are both haunted by the memory of the murder of their mothers lover, and it is brought to the surface after receiving a letter from their ill mother.
Willy seems somewhat unstable, never speaking, and collecting knives very much like that which he used to kill with as a child. In an attempt to prove to Lacey there is nothing to fear anymore, her husband takes her to their childhood home. There,Lacey takes a look into the mirror which she saw the murder, and beings to see the ghost of her mothers lover. She destroys the mirror, and her husband, in a strange move, decides to take the remnants of the mirror home and piece it all back together.
We then discover that the mirror was containing the evil spirt of their mothers lover, and now that the mirror is broken, the spirit has been released, every piece of the mirror cursed with the ability to cause anyone who looks at or touches it to either kill themselves, or be killed in very strange, random ways.
This film, in concept, has an interesting premise, but it fails terribly from an execution standpoint. To begin with, the acting, with the exception of the always great John Carradine, is universally bad.
The first 30 minutes of this film seem to be filmed almost entirely to recreate the opening minutes of Halloween. Most notably, with the children peering in to their home from a first person perspective, to the first person shots of a young boy holding a knife...even the inital murder itself is shot in a way that seems not so much to take cues from Halloween, so much as it simply copies it.
The second half of the story becauses a supernatural slasher of sorts. The broken pieces of the mirror, glowing read whenever they come into contact or in the vacinity of anyone. The death scenes, while attempting to be creative, often come off looking rather cheap, and all to fake at some points. I know this film was made on a small budget, but all the better reason to rely on the suspense of the kills then trying to exectue shoddy death scenes.
It seems as though Ulli Lommel wanted the pieces of the mirror to seem like their own character in a sense, jumping off the frame, often finding themselves to the most convenient of locations. The presence of a heartbeat when the mirror pieces take hold of their victims is a nice touch, but is throne off by the sporadic inclusion of the sounds of heavy breathing, often from a first person perspective, again using the Halloween formula, but out of place when there is no person with which to associate the breathing to.
However, what pulled me out of the movie, and I don't mean to nitpick, was the music. The music in this film is all over the place. At times it feels as those it is taken from other films, or has suffered at the hands of bad editing. Ominous music seems to play most often at moments in the film where no suspense or tension is being built, leaving the music strangely out of place. It often switches from a heavy synthesizer sound, to a Halloween/Exorcist sound, heavy on a piano. The music also suffers in that it often ends so abruptly throughout many scenes, often times making it seem as though the scene had been editing or cut in some strange fashion.
I applaud the the director for using a unique storyline, it is not often that a film combines both the slasher and supernatural element without losing everything. However, plot holes, along with the mentioned poor acting simply make the film feel awkward and clumsy, sadly falling to typical clichés and a rather unsatisfying ending.
For Horror and 80's Enthusiasts only. I doubt the casual moviegoer will find much here to truly captivate them.