Boogeyman (2005) by Stephen Kay

Director: Stephen Kay

Year: 2005

Country: USA/New Zealand/Germany

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural Slasher

Plot:

Returning home after his mother's death, a troubled man returns to his childhood home to put his childhood fears of a supernatural entity to rest and stumbles upon the creature intent on targeting him for escaping his clutches years ago forcing him to stop it from attacking his friends.

Review:

Overall this one here wasn't all that bad and did have some good things going for it. One of the best parts here is the great atmosphere within this one, which makes for a much more chilling effort than expected generated by some really strong scenes here. The opening sequence, where the hooded figure runs around the bedroom and hides in the close leading to the chilling attack that's terrifying to see unfold in front of a child, is a real standout not just for the attack by the creepy set-up in his room that continues the feeling of dread throughout here is other great scenes with the several flashbacks to how he became tormented by the spirit.

The other really impressive scenes, from the scene of him walking through the house and letting the atmosphere wash over the scene, a later encounter where he's accidentally locked inside a closet and readily freaks out thinking he's under attack and the really fun scene at the motel where it takes his girlfriend by appearing as a specter of dirty water attacking both her and him which is all sorts of fun here with the highly charged action making the creepy events portrayed within come off even better, all give this one some truly enjoyable scenes that bring along some really creepy moments as well.

Other fun times occur here with the storyline helping the stolen ghost children, from their initial scene swarming over him to protect them while he pieces together their actual fates, and the really enjoyable scenes where they visit her home with the posters along the wall and the different revelations that come from this which gives this the set-up from the wholly fun and intense finale. Filled with lots of high-end action of them chasing him through the different confrontations here as it takes out the family members in fun moments while bringing along the incredible final confrontations that have a large amount of fun with the way it lead up to dealing with the creature which ends this on a high note. Along with the creepy being itself, these give it some really enjoyable parts to overcome the minor flaws here.

The film's biggest problems stem from the wholly impossible way to determine what's going on here, from the way it keeps running through time in the finale where the different methods here for determining the course of action don't seem likely to occur from future incidents back in the past, and the whole situation itself makes so little sense. That the entire scene here in the finale works its way here is what really takes of while to work through and causes this one to really stand out. The other flaw for this one is the somewhat tame feeling on display here, with nothing in the way of kills or violence as they're all dragged away or feature nothing of any real value here, and the exceptionally low body count doesn't help matter much with a rather small opportunity to choose from. These here are what hold this back.

Overview: **.5/5

Pleasingly enjoyable if somewhat flawed effort for what it is, this does come off well enough overall but does have more than enough issues to hold it back from what it could’ve been. Those who are fine with this style of mainstream genre effort or are fine with the subject matter will have the most to like here while most others might want to heed caution.