By Geno McGahee
In 1978, HALLOWEEN became a monster hit. Michael Myers, the pale-faced killer, was referred to as “the Boogeyman” in the film and so when you are trying to emulate it and ride its coattails, calling your film “THE BOOGEYMAN” isn’t a bad idea. The 1980 film mixes elements of HALLOWEEN with some paranormal stuff and a house that is right out of Amityville. This uninspired mess didn’t really know what I was doing, but it did attempt to capture some of the stuff that HALLOWEEN did, but they just did it really really poorly.
Writer/Director Ulli Lommel is the one behind this film, the sequel and the upcoming return to the series after all these years. Hell, if John Carpenter is returning to the HALLOWEEN franchise, then dammit, Lommel has a right to return to THE BOOGEYMAN series.
We begin with a mother and her boyfriend being intimate as two children peek in from the window. The man is wearing pantyhose over his face in some weird sexual thing. I am guessing that it was a rape fantasy thing and those things can get very heated when interrupted. The guy being in character could literally rape anything in sight. When he notices the unwanted audience, he becomes enraged and ties young Willy to a bed. His sister Lacey frees him and he stabs his mother’s boyfriend to death.
We now launch 20 years ahead and Willy (Nicholas Love) isn’t well. He doesn’t speak and he wears overalls all of the time. In movies, they tend to explain slow people by putting them in overalls. Lacey (Suzanna Love) lives a normal life with her police officer husband, Jake (Ron James), but there is that past that still haunts her. When she gets a letter from her mother about a hopeful reunion, both she and Willy have negative reactions and flashbacks. Because of this reaction, Jake convinces his wife to seek counseling, but neglects to include Willy. He seems to need it more. When a girl comes onto him, he nearly chokes her to death. Not nice Willy. Not nice!
Dr. Warren (John Carradine) decides to hypnotize Lacey and it brings out this evil voice that wants to hurt people. Suzanna Love does well for the most part in this movie, but she is so hilariously over the top when she is freaking out and doing this par where she is speaking evil things. I found it very amusing, but that’s probably not what they were going for. Warren in his infinite wisdom insists that Jake take Lacey to her childhood home to overcome the demon once and for all, but when she gets there, she sees the pantyhose guy in the mirror. She breaks the mirror, but Jake picks up the pieces and takes it home. It just so happens that the mirror has this evil force within that was once that pantyhose guy. Any piece of the mirror can kill at any time and can also possess people and make them do things like commit suicide. Yes, this film is all over the place.
There is a final showdown between the family, a priest and a mirror but sadly, the pantyhose guy never climbed out of the mirror during this showdown. And we also get your typical horror open ending where you know there will be a sequel and, as we know, there was one. THE BOOGEYMAN isn’t a terrible film. It actually has a fair share of charm. I really liked Suzanna Love in this and enjoyed her over the top acting at times. The scream they added in that was obviously not her when she awoke was priceless. THE BOOGEYMAN borrowed a lot from HALLOWEEN, but why not? People wanted more movies like HALLOWEEN and if you can fill that void and turn a buck…why not?
I recommend THE BOOGEYMAN. It’s a mess. It’s all over the place. The story needed work. BUT it still wins because it was entertaining at times and it obviously had a lot of heart in it. I wanted to hate this, but I just couldn’t. It grew on me.
Rating: 5/10
