Saturday 7 April 2012

Review #375: 'The Boogeyman' (1980)

Like many horror films back in the 1980's (and even today), The Boogeyman takes its influence from John Carpenter's landmark in horror, Halloween (1978). While Michael Myers was the physical embodiment of the 'boogeyman' legend (I say legend, but it is more a term given to whatever scares little children at night), Ulli Lommel's shockingly shit video nasty goes the extra mile and adds a supernatural spin to the story in the shape of a haunted mirror.

The quite effective opening has a young girl and boy spying on their slutty mother as she seduces a man with a stocking on his head. They are spotted, and the man ties the boy to a bed while they have sex in another room. The girl cuts him loose with a large knife, and the boy then uses it to murder the man. Years later, the boy Willy (Nicholas Love) is mute, and the girl, Lacey (Suzanna Love), is psychologically troubled by the events of her childhood. Her psychiatrist Dr. Warren (John Carradine, looking like he's hoping nobody will notice his presence in the film) advises her husband Jake (Ron James) that she should go back to her childhood home to confront her demons. She does, and while there she sees the man wearing the stocking in the bedroom mirror, which she smashes. Jake pieces together the mirror and takes it home, when strange deaths start occurring.

Yes, this is as daft as it sounds. Horror movies have long made killers out of strange things (tomatoes, clowns, a house), but a mirror that influences suicides? Mmm. It's one of the strangest choices for a killer 'bad guy' I've come across in horror since the strangely likeable Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977). If anything, this at least separates it from other mundane entries into the slasher genre, but the film struggles along trying to juggle a story a sibling connection, psychological torment, and standard stalk-and-slash. There is a half-decent death involving a 'long kiss', but apart from this, it is instantly forgettable.


Directed by: Ulli Lommel
Starring: Suzanna Love, Ron James, Nicholas Love, John Carradine
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie



The Boogey Man (1980) on IMDb

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