239) Boogeyman (2005)

"For fifteen years, everybody told me I was making it up. Everyone said it was just a story. There's no such thing as the Boogeyman. But I was right."

Director

Stephen Kay

Cast
Barry Watson - Tim Jensen
Emily Deschanel - Kate Houghton
Skye McCole Bartusiak - Franny Roberts
Tory Mussett - Jessica
Andrew Glover - Boogeyman
Charles Mesure - Rob Jensen
Lucy Lawless - Mary Jensen
Phil Gordon - Uncle Mike
Jennifer Rucker - Pam

It's about that time where I start getting next Halloween's thread of horror films to review figured out. I know the theme I'm going with. I just need to get a movie lineup figured out. I have plenty of titles written down to choose from. But what to watch? I'm really excited for this year's thread and the horror theme I chose. This'll be a good one. 

It dawned on me while watching the 2005 supernatural horror movie "Boogeyman" that I need to get moving on those ten films I plan on posting for October. It takes me this long to watch and review that many movies. 

"Boogeyman" is a movie I see everywhere. It's practically on every streaming service under the horror category. I stumble upon it wherever people are selling off their horror DVDs. I'm sure I've seen it buried in just about every bargain bin I've come across. I even managed to obtain a copy, and I don't remember where or how I got it. Seriously! I have no recollection of ever buying it. It's not a movie I would buy, even if the price was right. It's just there amongst my DVD library. Somehow it got into the house. Maybe it crawled in underneath a door or through an open window? Maybe it was living in the walls or something since before we moved into this house? Weird! But I decided to let it stay out of the goodness of my big stupid heart, and with a spec of hope that maybe it might be worth hanging on to. 

I often wondered if this movie was based to any degree on the short story "The Boogeyman" by Stephen King. 

In 2023, King's story got the movie treatement also called, "The Boogeyman." I've already watched and reviewed it. I remember enjoying it for the most part though I remember very little about it. Otherwise, I've been confused a bit by all these Boogeyman movies. But let me clarify that "Boogeyman" is not based on King's story. What a shame!

The film starts as young Tim Jensen witnesses an evil paranormal entity hiding in his closet snatch his father into the dark abyss of the closet. Since then, he never saw his dad come out of the closet. I feel like I have to mention that. 

Anyways, witnessing this paranormal abduction scars Tim rather deeply well into his adulthood.
Later, now an adult, Tim (Barry Watson) grows up fearing this entity's return. He has also developed a fear of closets. I'd be terrified of closets and the people who come out of them if I witnessed such a spectacle as little Tim did.
After his mother suddenly dies, Tim decides to go back to his childhood home as a way to cope with the trauma he's carried with him since his dad went into the closet. 

While living in his old home by himself, he finds evidence that the closet monster, which is never referred to as the "boogeyman," is still lurking about. And he's claiming more victims. 

Tim's friends, including his girlfriend Jessica (Tory Mussett), begin disappearing as if the monster is trying to get back at Tim because... that's what monsters do? 

Tim realizes that he's going to have to face this thing head-on. He doesn't know how to defeat it, nor does anyone else. Tim's guess on how to defeat this beasty is anyone's guess. But he knows he's going to have to find the monster's weakness and use it. 

This is one of the most mundane and bland horror flicks I've seen. I get the impression that the writers must have wanted audiences to take this horror movie seriously despite using as many cliches as they could hoping nobody would notice. 

It's such a generic movie, it's almost extraordinary. I mean this is the epitome of generic. The title should have been a big indication how flat and stock the story is. "Boogeyman" in this case is just as scary as calling the movie "Big Scary Closet Monster."   

It starts off with a twist on the old boogeyman-in-the-closet trope. The rest is the same old closet monster stuff. That's all this movie is all the way to the end. 

The ending is nonsensical. We see Tim confront the Boogeyman and attack it through means that were lost on me. It's as though the movie thinks the audience is in on on something that Tim knows about defeating the monster, so there's no need to explain anything. I must have missed something because I definitely felt out of the loop. Basically, it made very little sense how Tim knew how to defeat the Boogeyman, and what the Boogeyman's motives are in stealing kids from their bedrooms in the first place. I think the final conflict has something to do with conquering fears. Yawn! 

All the movie has to rely on is all its jump scares and the Boogeyman himself portrayed in beautiful early CGI. Sarcasm intended! 

Nor is there any explanation as to why it has its crosshairs on Tim but never actually did anything to him outside of causing a lifetime of trauma after little Tim saw it take his father right there in the safety of his own bedroom. Why does it want to torment him and make his loved ones disappear? 

There's a lot missing in this movie. Even monsters and demons have motives. 

"Boogeyman" is neither scary nor enticing. It's a generic movie with it's seemingly paint-by-numbers premise about a scared kid confronting the Boogeyman. It overrelies on jump-scares, and has a protagonist that's flatter than the actual premise. It's a movie best left in the closet. And my copy is taking up precious shelf space in my library. I better take care of that.