InsidePulse Review – Boogeyman

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credit: www.impawards.com

Director:

Stephen T. Kay

Cast:

Barry Watson……….Tim Jensen
Emily Deschanel……….Kate
Skye McCole Bartusiak……….Franny
Lucy Lawless……….Mary Jensen
Tory Mussett……….Jessica
Robyn Malcolm……….Katie

Running time: 1:26. MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of horror and terror/violence, and some partial nudity.

As a child, everyone is afraid of something. Usually it’s the dark, or the creature in the closet or the monster under the bed. People know this, and creative people capitalize on it. Wes Craven created Freddy and scared the hell out of people, capitalizing on their innate psychological fears. Same with Clive Barker and the Candyman. It can be argued that the main legend they used as a basis was the boogeyman, the scary – as – hell guy who hid in children’s closets and would come and get you as soon as mom or dad left the room. It’s a golden concept, ripe with potential and genuine possibility to scare the hell out of people.

And somehow they screwed it up. Bad.

Here’s the plot: Tim Jensen (Watson) is a little eight-year-old kid who is freaking out after his dad tells him stories of the Boogeyman. Tim now thinks the Boogeyman is coming to get him. His dad comes into his room to calm him down, and when he turns his back the Boogeyman takes him instead.

This totally messes up Tim’s head, as he spends the next fifteen years going to a child psychologist.

Of course, no one believes Tim’s story and they tell him that he just made it up to deal with the fact his father walked out on him and his mother. So Tim, an adult now, lives an average yet paranoid life – working, partying with friends, and meeting the parent’s of his rich and attractive girlfriend Jessica (Tory Mussett). But deep inside he feels something is wrong, and when his uncle calls to tell him his mother has died, Tim decides to head back home, spend one night in his old house, and confront his past and his fears.

If the plot sounds generic, that’s because it is. In fact, it’s nothing but a boring, generic snoozefest. This movie and its main character tread along at a pace that would make a turtle laugh. Actually, that’s only half true. The pacing of this film is so messed up that it’ll go along, then just stop, then crawl along, and then speed up again. This mostly happens whenever Tim gets anywhere near a closet (or any door, actually). He’ll stop, stare at it, tip-toe closer, stop again, consider opening it, stop, stare at the knob, and then slowly, incredibly slowly, open the door. He does all of this and more then half the time finds nothing inside.

Sure, a horror movie is supposed to build up suspense, but these moments do nothing but bore the audience, which is inevitable when you do it over, and over, and over, and over again. And Watson looks like he’s on some sort of depressant – he looks like he is literally sleep-walking through this film. Which is no surprise, considering the effect the film has on the audience.

If only pacing were the only fault of this film, it might not be too bad. If only. The film isn’t scary. Sure, one might jump once or twice in the beginning of the film, but once you catch on to the fact that the film uses the same tactic repeatedly to scare, you’ll just drift away in your chair. Again, given the lack of suspense in the repititous and boring action, the only thing the director relys on to scare is incredibly loud music and quick camera cuts.

Oddly enough, there’s a sequence in the film repeated several different times that accomplishes nothing. It happens and then two seconds later it’s forgotten about. It’s startling for the viewer the first time, but by the third all it does is blast loud music at you and brings your attention back to the film (which will wander off in more interesting directions, like the conversations that seem to be going on all around you). There is little in terms of charicterization, or logic, in this film. Tim has some passing conversations with his boyhood love Mary (Lucy Lawless) before the supernatural shat hits the fan. It goes about as deep as Mary thinking Tim is nuts, and by then the film has sort of, well, fallen apart.

See, strange things happen with closets and beds and such. The beginning of the film Tim has memories of his childhood in the house, which is actually kind of nice and gives a little glimpse into Tim’s childhood, but at the end Tim somehow jumps backward and forward through time. This throws the entire movie out of whack, as it really makes no sense. It also creates some huge holes in the plot and in logic, and the ending is so cliche ridden and predictable it’s laughable. It does nothing to tie the plot together and even less to answer some of the outstanding questions the film raises.