Boogeyman

Details

Tim continues to be haunted by the childhood myth of the Boogeyman and, although he is now an adult, the memory of a terrifying night from his youth still refuses to leave him. Sixteen years earlier, during a violent storm, young Tim was lying awake in bed as flashes of lightning cast strange shadows across the walls of his bedroom. When his father enters the room to reassure him, he attempts to calm Tim's fears by checking the room and the cupboards. But when he opens the closet door, something unseen grabs him from behind and drags him into the darkness, never to be seen again.

Terrified that the Boogeyman will eventually return for him, Tim has turned his apartment into a kind of safe haven. There are no wardrobes, no cupboards with doors and not even a traditional bed. He has even replaced the doors on his refrigerator with glass panels, ensuring that there are no dark corners anywhere for evil to hide. With his apartment carefully arranged in this way he has managed to rebuild his life, working as an assistant editor at a magazine and maintaining a relationship with his girlfriend Jessica - although quite what she makes of his rather unusual living arrangements is another matter entirely.

Everything changes when Tim learns of his mother's death and is forced to return to the childhood home he has spent years trying to forget. At the funeral he meets up with his childhood friend Kate, who later visits the house to check on him. As Tim wanders through the house, memories begin to flood back and his long-suppressed fears slowly resurface. Soon the line between memory and reality begins to blur as the horrors of the past seem ready to return.

As events escalate Tim befriends a mysterious young girl named Franny who claims to know the truth about the Boogeyman. According to her, the only way to defeat it is to return to where it all began and finally confront the darkness lurking within the closet.

Picture & Sound

Although the picture has been deliberately degraded to give it a washed-out and slightly bleached appearance, the transfer itself still manages to impress. With an above-average bit-rate and excellent black levels during both daytime and night-time scenes, the presentation avoids any obvious problems with artifacting or outlining. Being such a recent release, the image is also free from dust, scratches and other print defects. All in all it is an unexpectedly strong transfer - one that some bigger Hollywood blockbusters have struggled to match.

With a film designed to scare its audience, the soundtrack plays a crucial role in delivering those noises that go bump in the night. From the outset the 448 Kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 track does its best to deliver plenty of impressive surround effects and floor-thumping LFE moments designed to make you jump in all the right places. It is exactly the sort of soundtrack a suspense-driven horror film calls for.

Unfortunately the film relies far too heavily on this "shock factor". While the dialogue remains firmly anchored in the centre channel, it can actually be quite difficult to hear at times, forcing you to increase the volume. Lulled into a false sense of security, you settle back down only to be blasted out of your seat when the next loud noise arrives. And it is not because the moment is particularly scary - it is simply too flipping loud. If it was the intention of the producers to make the audience jump purely through excessive volume, then Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert have certainly earned their keep here.

Menu & Extras

The menu system is cleverly animated and scored with clips of video and dialogue from the film, with some nice transitions between the main sections. The extras include cast interviews discussing the evolution of horror films, a short look at the visual effects progression, six deleted scenes and an alternate ending. On paper it sounds fairly promising, although the extras ultimately fail to add much real value to the release.

The interviews are split into two featurettes: the rather unremarkable Evolution Of The Horror Film, which runs for around fifteen minutes, and the twenty minute Crew, Characters and Cast featurette. Both sections feel fairly similar and could easily have been combined into one more substantial piece. As it stands they mostly consist of the usual collection of promotional back-slapping.

The biggest disappointments are the Deleted Scenes, the Alternate Ending and the Special Effects Progression featurette. For a start there is no commentary explaining why these scenes were removed or the reasoning behind the alternate ending. The deleted material largely speaks for itself and the alternate ending is hardly an improvement. The Special Effects Progression segment runs for just five minutes and simply replays scenes from the film showing the effects stages without any meaningful explanation. It quickly becomes repetitive and rather dull. Three storyboard comparisons round things off but add little of interest.

Overall

With an opening scene that shows a great deal of promise - after all, how many of us hid under the covers during a storm when we were younger? - Boogeyman quickly settles into a very tired formula. Despite the strong premise the film never manages to develop anything particularly original or memorable. With so many better films in the genre available, this one feels like it has arrived well past its sell-by date.

It really is horror by numbers. The film is neither particularly scary nor especially creepy, offering very little in the way of genuine suspense or tension. Most of the supposed shock moments are telegraphed so obviously that you can see them coming a mile away. There was one scene that did manage to startle me, although even that had little to do with the Boogeyman himself.

The ending leaves more unanswered questions than satisfying conclusions and feels very much designed to leave the door open for an inevitable sequel - a sequel that the film itself does very little to justify. If Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert's Ghost House Pictures venture is to flourish, one can only hope their future efforts deliver something a little more original and entertaining than Boogeyman. Strictly one for teenage horror fans, and even then it is a difficult recommendation.

Special features

• Cast & Crew Interviews - Evolution of the Horror Film, Crew, Characters & Cast
• Deleted Scenes - Alternate Ending, Trying to Rescue Dad, Tim Strapping Himself in the Chair, Owner of the Backpack, Bedroom Flashback and Dead Cat, Park and Street Scene, Photocopy Room and Jessica in Office
• Storyboards
• Visual Effects Progression