 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
As children, most of us have experienced a time in our lives when dark corners were places not to be trifled with. There was always a fear that a big, bad monster might come out of the closet and snatch us from our bed. Well, the creators of the movie Boogeyman have decided to capitalize on this fear - and not in a good way.
The film opens with Timmy, a little boy who is terribly afraid of the Boogeyman. His father comes to tuck him in one night and assures Timmy there is no reason to fear a creature who does not exist. Timmy's father goes through the usual steps of checking all of the dark corners and tells his son he will sleep safely through the night. Then the movie takes a cheap, psychological twist, as Timmy's father is maliciously killed by the Boogeyman himself, traumatizing his poor son for life.
Flash forward to a grown-up Tim (Barry Watson), who is still afraid of closets. Aside from the painfully traumatic experiences of his youth, he has turned out to be a fairly well-adjusted person. The movie continues as Tim is on his way to spend Thanksgiving with his girlfriend's parents. Shortly after arriving, he finds out his mother has just died mysteriously.
The rest of the plot is pretty easy to figure out.
He returns to his childhood home, which happens to be an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. There, he decides to conquer his long-standing fear of the Boogeyman once and for all.
By far, the worst thing about this movie is the story. It is neither original, nor interesting in any way. If a horror movie is intended to frighten its audience, it must be able to catch it off guard once in a while. Except for some cheap spooks, like mirror tricks and people jumping out unexpectedly, it is not scary at all.
Whoever filmed the movie tried to save it by incorporating eye-popping camera shots. After about nine or 10 zoom-ins, accompanied by a series of overzealous creepy angles, the movie just gets stupid. These kinds of camera tricks are only effective when you have a good story to work with and, frankly, the camera maneuvers are really annoying.
Watson did not make a good career move by taking on this script. With the rise in popularity of horror movies, maybe he thought it'd be easy to jump on the bandwagon. Or perhaps, he saw fellow "7th Heaven" co-star Jessica Biel star in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and thought he should join her in her quest to ruin the horror-film industry. Frankly, both of them should just stick with their roles on "7th Heaven" - at least that way they'll both get paid.
If you are itching for a movie that is actually scary, save your money for another horror flick in the future. Maybe one of those would be a much better bet.
Boogeyman is in now in theaters.
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