Broadcast and Cinematography

Director Stephen T. Kay’s previous noteworthy film was the remake of Get Carter (2000) of which the only thing memorable is the cinematography and grit of the picture, which is about you can say about this mediocre endeavor Boogeyman, which has mood and ambience but lacks both heart and conviction for a genre film about overcoming childhood fears.

The film follows Tim (Barry Watson) whom after watching his father die at the hands of a dark force in the closet as a child has been traumatized even into adult hood. As he thinks he has put it all behind him and is slated to be married to girlfriend Jessica (Tory Mussett), a death in the family occurs causing him to return to his home town where the memory of the night his father died still lingers. Visiting his child therapist he realizes that the only way to overcome his fear is to face it head on, so, he decides to stay in the house that his father died in overnight.

As the memories of his father’s death resurface Tim finds himself a pawn in which he is not only trying to save his own life and sanity from the malevolent force that haunts his dreams but the souls of all the other children that the force has taken.

Sounds like an interesting psychological thriller except the film looses its way halfway through when it tries to link Tim’s nightmares and personal “boogeyman” to the one that’s haunting the children in his hometown. Once the film delves into this arena the logic behind the film starts to go downhill as you realize that in order for Tim to defeat the “boogeyman” he has to overcome his own personal demons, which is why the boogeyman is a personification of all of Tim’s own fears. His overcoming the boogeyman should in no way affect the boogeyman of both the living and the dead children that haunt his home town, but that is not how the film plays out and the whole angel with the “restless spirits” of the boogeyman’s past victims becomes nothing more than padding for the otherwise already padded film.

What truly keeps the film interesting is Bobby Bukowski’s cinematography because the editing style of John Axelrad is hyper-kinetic in the MTV-style tradition and doesn’t help the film in the slightest. Bukowski manages to bring some suspense to the otherwise drab film.