Video Nasty #7
The Bogey Man
1980
THE MOST TERRIFYING NIGHTMARE OF CHILDHOOD IS ABOUT TO RETURN!
American Title: The Boogeyman
NTSC Running Time: 81:41
Directed, Written and Produced by Ulli Lommel (While the credits explicitly state this, buried in the end credits is this: Screenplay by Ulli Lommel, Suzanna Love and David Herschel. Megalomania strikes again.)
Starring: Suzanna Love, Ron James, John Carradine, Nicholas Love
Body Count: 8, and one implied. (But how she could have died from getting hit in the face with a medicine cabinet, I don't know.)
Availability: On Region 1 DVD from Sony on a double-feature with Return Of The Boogeyman. Anchor Bay also offers a double-feature (with The Devonsville Terror). I believe both are out of print. The Sony release is a bit easier to find, and quite affordable.
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Bondage and that Blood/Breasts combo that the BBFC finds so offensive.
What was cut: 44 seconds of a woman bound and a dead woman in the bathtub with blood on her chest.
Current BBFC Status: The uncut version was awarded an 18 certificate on July 20, 2000. An even longer version (under the title Ulli Lommel's Boogeyman) was approved on May 7, 2004.
Availability: Region 2 extended cut from Hollywood DVD Ltd.
The Bogey Man was seized, but escaped prosecution.
The first thing you get from this flick is a lesson in parenting: Don't tell your kids to play outside in the middle of the night, tie them to beds, or leave large knives within easy reach of toddlers. But I didn't have to tell you all that, right?
1960: Drunken, kinky, neglectful mom has her creepy boyfriend tie her son, Willy, to a bed when he won't listen. His sister, Lacey, goes to the kitchen and grabs a huge knife to free him with. Once he's up and around, he does what any abused six-year-old would do: STAB! STAB! STAB!!! Willy knifes the boyfriend, while Lacey watches in a wall-mounted mirror.
1980: Lacey (Suzanna Love) and Willy (Nicholas Love, real-life brother of Suzanna) live with their aunt and uncle on a small farm. Willy hasn't spoken in twenty years. Lacey is married and has a small child, Kevin, and everything is pretty normal...until a letter from mom arrives. Now, Lacey is having nightmares and can't stop thinking about the murder she saw as a child. Her asshole cop husband (Canadian comedian Ron James in his film debut) and her dopey shrink (legendary John Carradine) tell her she has to go back to the house where the murder took place. It's a lovely house, actually, and there's nothing wrong with it. The girl who answers the door is there with her bro and sis, and the visiting couple are free to look around because, lucky for them, the house is for sale. Lacey and hubby poke around and everything's fine...until Lacey spots the mirror...and her mom's boyfriend is in it! Rising from the bed and coming for her! She smashes the mirror with a chair. Her idiot husband picks up all the pieces and the frame and takes it back home! Where he reassembles it!
But when a mirror breaks, all it has seen is freed. And the long-ago dead boyfriend is now the invisible BOOGEYMAN, and he'll kill anyone who gets anywhere near a broken piece of the mirror!!!
Written down, it sounds pretty stupid...and it is, I guess, but it's also so much fun that you don't really notice just how dumb it is until you think about it afterwards. The idea of the Boogeyman is never fleshed out as well as it should be, so calling the film The Boogeyman is a neat gimmick that gets horror fans thinking of Halloween (the cheesy Carpenter-inspired score does that, too), but the ideas here are pretty original and it would have been neat to see what could have been done with the broken-mirror premise by a crew that had a bit more ambition...or money...or talent.
Not that there's no talent in evidence: John Carradine has over 300 screen credits (including John Ford's 1939 oat-opera classic Stagecoach) and no shortage of ability...although his lines leave a lot to be desired. The sequences involving the mirror range from dumb to frightening, and I got a couple of decent scares from the film. Oh, and that is future Sassy and Jane magazine editor/founder Jane Pratt as the girl who cuts her top open and stabs herself in the neck, the Boogeyman's first real victim. Personally, I think this film is her finest accomplishment...but what do I know?
All in all, a fun way to kill 81 minutes, a few chills, a few thrills, some good and not-so-good acting and effects, with Carradine and Suzanna Love bringing the best performances; Carradine because of his experience, Love because she has the most to work with, and you can tell she was at least having fun. I feel ready to tackle the sequel...and it'll probably be a lot like watching The Boogeyman all over again!
So don't break any mirrors: you never know what they may have seen. I sure won't. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
The Bogey Man was seized, but escaped prosecution.
The first thing you get from this flick is a lesson in parenting: Don't tell your kids to play outside in the middle of the night, tie them to beds, or leave large knives within easy reach of toddlers. But I didn't have to tell you all that, right?
1960: Drunken, kinky, neglectful mom has her creepy boyfriend tie her son, Willy, to a bed when he won't listen. His sister, Lacey, goes to the kitchen and grabs a huge knife to free him with. Once he's up and around, he does what any abused six-year-old would do: STAB! STAB! STAB!!! Willy knifes the boyfriend, while Lacey watches in a wall-mounted mirror.
1980: Lacey (Suzanna Love) and Willy (Nicholas Love, real-life brother of Suzanna) live with their aunt and uncle on a small farm. Willy hasn't spoken in twenty years. Lacey is married and has a small child, Kevin, and everything is pretty normal...until a letter from mom arrives. Now, Lacey is having nightmares and can't stop thinking about the murder she saw as a child. Her asshole cop husband (Canadian comedian Ron James in his film debut) and her dopey shrink (legendary John Carradine) tell her she has to go back to the house where the murder took place. It's a lovely house, actually, and there's nothing wrong with it. The girl who answers the door is there with her bro and sis, and the visiting couple are free to look around because, lucky for them, the house is for sale. Lacey and hubby poke around and everything's fine...until Lacey spots the mirror...and her mom's boyfriend is in it! Rising from the bed and coming for her! She smashes the mirror with a chair. Her idiot husband picks up all the pieces and the frame and takes it back home! Where he reassembles it!
But when a mirror breaks, all it has seen is freed. And the long-ago dead boyfriend is now the invisible BOOGEYMAN, and he'll kill anyone who gets anywhere near a broken piece of the mirror!!!
Written down, it sounds pretty stupid...and it is, I guess, but it's also so much fun that you don't really notice just how dumb it is until you think about it afterwards. The idea of the Boogeyman is never fleshed out as well as it should be, so calling the film The Boogeyman is a neat gimmick that gets horror fans thinking of Halloween (the cheesy Carpenter-inspired score does that, too), but the ideas here are pretty original and it would have been neat to see what could have been done with the broken-mirror premise by a crew that had a bit more ambition...or money...or talent.
Not that there's no talent in evidence: John Carradine has over 300 screen credits (including John Ford's 1939 oat-opera classic Stagecoach) and no shortage of ability...although his lines leave a lot to be desired. The sequences involving the mirror range from dumb to frightening, and I got a couple of decent scares from the film. Oh, and that is future Sassy and Jane magazine editor/founder Jane Pratt as the girl who cuts her top open and stabs herself in the neck, the Boogeyman's first real victim. Personally, I think this film is her finest accomplishment...but what do I know?
All in all, a fun way to kill 81 minutes, a few chills, a few thrills, some good and not-so-good acting and effects, with Carradine and Suzanna Love bringing the best performances; Carradine because of his experience, Love because she has the most to work with, and you can tell she was at least having fun. I feel ready to tackle the sequel...and it'll probably be a lot like watching The Boogeyman all over again!
So don't break any mirrors: you never know what they may have seen. I sure won't. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Okay, I'm sold. I'm adding Boogeyman to the list of movies I have to see.
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