If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button.
Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film.
QUICK TAKE:
Horror: Following his mother's death, a young man returns to his childhood home where his fear of closets and the boogeyman inside them was formed.
PLOT:
Associate magazine editor Tim Jensen (BARRY WATSON) has always been afraid of the dark, especially concerning what may lurk under a bed or in any closet. That all stems from an experience when he was eight-years-old and saw his father yanked into his bedroom closet, never to be seen again. While spending Thanksgiving with his girlfriend Jessica (TORY MUSSETT) and her family, Tim gets a call from his Uncle Mike (PHILLIP GORDON) that his long-suffering mother, Mary (LUCY LAWLESS), has died.
Returning home for the funeral, Tim speaks with his former therapist who thinks it would be a good idea for him to spend one night in the house to exercise what she thinks are just his personal demons. Meeting former childhood friend Kate (EMILY DESCHANEL) and a young girl, Franny (SKYE McCOLE BARTUSIAK), who similarly fears the boogeyman that lurks in most every child's bedroom, Tim sets out to face and conquer his fears. Yet, as the night progresses and various odd, spooky and supernatural events occur, Tim realizes that the boogeyman may indeed be real and coming after him.
OUR TAKE: Coming Soon
Sony Pictures did not screen "Boogeyman" for critics until the night before it opened, so we're still working on our artistic review and will have it posted as soon as possible. That said, we can tell you that the film contains a few moments that are rather creepy and spooky, but this by the numbers horror flick is simply too derivative of other offerings in the genre that preceded it. When not telegraphing its various jump scenes (that may still jolt viewers), the film resorts to flash images, lots of editing, rapid zooming and other directorial flourishes in an effort to cover for the lack of true and genuinely frightening moments. Throw in a bare bones story that hints at some interesting subplots but never develops them enough and you have a recipe for a film that might scare little kids and those with low tolerance levels for such material, but will likely bore anyone who's seen far superior, similarly themed films.
Reviewed February 3, 2005 / Posted February 4, 2005
![[Logo]](/images/screenit_logo2.jpg){kind=logo}
