Boogeyman
Tim searches for answers. Did a Boogeyman really steal his father away from the house all those years ago? Are his nearest and dearest in danger as the monster returns from the past to haunt the present? Does anybody care? The entire notion of pace has been abandoned in Boogeyman and replaced with a tedious effort to get the viewer to sympathise with a character who doesn’t say or do very...
Tim searches for answers. Did a Boogeyman really steal his father away from the house all those years ago? Are his nearest and dearest in danger as the monster returns from the past to haunt the present? Does anybody care? The entire notion of pace has been abandoned in Boogeyman and replaced with a tedious effort to get the viewer to sympathise with a character who doesn’t say or do very much of anything. Boogeyman borrows heavily from The Grudge. Very little actually happens in the film and the viewer is left twiddling his thumbs waiting for the allotted appointment with the CGI fiend responsible for the devastation and psychological upset experienced by the characters. The plot of Boogeyman, if indeed one exists, drifts into a mild haze early on in the film. Despite the presence of flash back scenes, far too little information is offered to the viewer about Tim’s childhood for the audience to be able to identify with Tim’s emotional predicament later in life.
Tory Mussett’s portrays Tim’s girlfriend Jessica as an obnoxious dumb blonde. A mere ten minutes into the movie, the funeral of Tim’s mum brings childhood sweetheart Kate into the frame. Instantly, we know that Tim will grow to mistrust city living and city people and fall in love with his soul mate from the country. Thus, when the Boogeyman makes Jessica disappear, the viewer is neither shocked nor saddened. Opportunities for Tim to be the “real killer” as opposed to the Boogeyman are brushed aside as the characters, unlike the audience, finally believe Tim’s stories and the identity of the Boogeyman is revealed.
The male protagonist’s obsession with closets throughout this film offers the more cynical member of the viewing audience something of a sexual undercurrent as far as the film’s plot is concerned. Is Tim gay and trying to suppress his feelings? This emotional angle detracts from the “quick, everyone hide, it’s that awfully designed CGI monster coming to get us,” angle that the writer and director of the film are so desperate for the viewer to identify with. They want us to face our fears as we watch Tim’s struggle with demons from his past. Instead, the viewer spends the length of the movie wondering precisely when all this tedious nonsense will be over and done with. The ending, like the film, is confused and we learn nothing new about the Boogeyman creature.
The DVD extras are a mixed bag. The cast and crew interviews have been used as a forum for self-congratulations amongst those concerned with making the movie and it soon becomes clear that the director and writer think that they have made one of the best horror movies ever and were the first pair in Hollywood to discover psychological horror. The deleted scenes include an alternative ending which is even more confusing then the one that has been used in the film. Also, in the scene “Jessica In the Office” Tim is shown to be a different character to the protagonist we have just glimpsed prancing about looking for things in closets. Here, he talks and he smiles and he makes jokes. Hardly the actions of a man traumatised by the return of a nightmare from his past.
The storyboards and visual effects progression sections are for the technical buffs of this world and not for the casual viewer. The DVD extras on this release are used to pat the cast and crew on the back for a job well done. Not to offer the viewing public anything new that might help them understand the film better. The Boogeyman might be hiding in the closet but this DVD should hide in the bin.
View The Trailer Here
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