Boogeyman (2012)

RELEASED TO TV IN 2012 and directed by Jeffery Scott Lando, "Boogeyman" concerns a single cop father in a small town in Michigan (Eddie McClintock) and his attractive female partner (Amy Bailey) who investigate the mysterious death of a nasty recluse who seemed to be keeping 'something' in the attic, but 'it' was released and is now on a murderous rampage. Emma Samms plays the chief of police while Danny Horn & Gabriel Steele play the father's two sons, a teen and adolescent respectively.This is NOT the theatrically released "Boogeyman" from 2005, which started the 3-movie franchise, but rather a standalone TV flick. The cast, locations, monster and plot are all fine. In spirit, it's akin to the Friday the 13th sequels after the first two movies; even the 'monster' looks like Jason when he morphed into an inhuman zombie by Part VI (1986). Speaking of the monster, they reveal him right from the get-go, which destroys any suspense. Even the Friday the 13th sequels waited till the end to reveal Jason's hideous face. Speaking of which, every Friday the 13th flick is a masterpiece compared to this movie.What's wrong with this version of "Boogeyman"? While the eventual explanation of the monster is interesting and unexpected (I'm not going to give it away), the movie smacks of amateurism in script and overall execution (you'll know what I mean). The filmmakers try to make up for it with quirky or amusing moments (e.g. the two lesbians), but it wasn't enough. The flick needed a serious rewrite and to work out the kinks in execution, but these take time, and time costs money, which the producers weren't willing to spend.THE MOVIE RUNS 85 minutes. Unfortunately, I can't find any info on where it was shot, but it doesn't look like lower Michigan, although I suppose it COULD be Upper Peninsula Michigan, but I doubt it. WRITER (term used loosely): David Reed.GRADE: D+

Perhaps I was just in an extraordinary good mood or maybe my level of tolerance for low-budget horror movies became a lot more flexible over the years, but I honestly enjoyed "Legend of the Boogeyman" … I also have a strange and inexplicable affiliation for the works of director Jeffery Scott Lando. He's not exactly considered to be a prodigy horror director, but I count his "Savage Island" and "Decoys 2" among my guilty pleasures, and earlier this year I watched his latest movie "Suspension" at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and felt it was terrific (albeit derivative) late- night entertainment! "The Legend of Boogeyman" should also be seen as such… The script is flawed and contains quite a few holes, the acting performances are questionable and the attempts to generate suspense are underwhelming, but the titular creature (actually, never really referred to as the boogeyman) is pretty cool-looking, its background is relatively original and there's a fair amount of lightly digestible gore/bloodshed. There you, three negative aspects and three positive ones! The film tells the familiar tale of a couple of irritating teenagers that break into the ramshackle house of a local weirdo/hermit and accidentally release the hideous creature that was safely locked away in the attic. The monster promptly goes on a murderous rampage, but in fact there's more than meets the eye. He's not just a random brainless monster, but an ancient biblical figure on the lookout for a new brother to protect. He's got his rotten mind set on Jacob, the idiotic teen who released him from his attic jail, while the cute female law enforcer Rebecca senses a strong bloodline connection with the creature. "The Legend of Boogeyman" is unpretentious, never boring and features a large amount of massacres that are gory without ever getting repulsive or shocking. But the best thing about the film is undoubtedly the monster's make-up, as he sort looks like a hybrid between a zombie and a mummy.

When a series of strange deaths are apparent in a small town, the local authorities find them to be caused by a demon released that has a special connection to several of the residents and must stop its rampage before its target is found.This was a decent overall entry as this wasn't one that really has a lot of bad points but not one that's really overflowing with positives either. One of the better features here is the enjoyable pace, as it's got some nice action scenes spread throughout with the different confrontations here with several high-energy scenes including the great attack on the old man, a generally enjoyable massacre on the kids in the forest and a later attack on a neighbor that gets some chilling stalking including along with the actual kill which is quite brutal. The film's two biggest scenes, though, come from the house ambush where the phone calls let them on to what's happening early on, the bedroom encounter is chilling and the different gun-battles here bring the action as well as some creepy stalking in the house's hallways gives this some better scenes, and the later encounter in the father's shack is really fun with the chaos and panic of the abduction serving as the launching point for the myriad of fine stalking scenes out in the woods picking off the members one-by-one in chilling encounters, the confrontation in the attic is highly enjoyable with a lot of action streaming throughout here and the influx of the storyline ramifications gives this one some even more fun here with how this impacts the action. While there's also some fun to be had with the creature's history and back-story, which is pretty clever and quite unique in and of itself because of what it signifies and how it's done here to link together both its appearance in the story as well as the connection to the human stories, it's got enough to really like here that gives this one some positive points against the film's big flaw. The problem here is basically a common grievance in having the one character who knows what's going on and how to stop it keep that information to themselves, forcing everyone else to deal with the situation without knowing what to do themselves. It's gradually apparent here that something's happening and there's little reason to think that would've been accepted and useful from what's happening, but rather it's all kept here that way instead. As well, the film's decision to handle the bullying aspect here is somewhat mishandled here as this spends quite a bit of time here setting it up only to drop it without really giving it any real purpose at all, since it doesn't really have any point in helping them overcome the creature, none of the bullying provides the strength to battle it later and the creature never gives them any kind of comeuppance or even accidental revenge as it just drops the thread altogether which makes such a questionable and controversial angle to have been included at all. Along with some usual atrocious CGI, these problems do affect it but overall it's pretty decent.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity, strong themes of bullying and children-in-jeopardy.

This isn't Stephen King's Boogeyman, although it came out the same year.It is unusual in the respect that it links to the Bible; a first for me in horror films. The story starts with Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:9), but leaves us wondering what this has to do with the Bogeyman. We'll find out later.The boogeyman starts with Skinner, who had him hid in the attic. Why?He dispatches a couple of luscious babes who are getting it on in the woods. Are we back to the Bible again? Paul's letter to the Romans?Anyway, there is little to recommend this film. It is not scary, and the killings are mild. Find the original for a good boogeyman.