The Boogens (1981)

With the advent of cheap CGI, a lost art has been created: the monster movie, sans monster. Creating a monster in the olden days was expensive. Having a good-looking puppet, or dare I say even something animatronic, would cost several hundreds if not multiple thousands of dollars, and could even require hiring a specialist to operate the creature. A lot of these older movies just didn't have the budget or the connections for that sort of thing.The Boogens is one of those monster movies -- it's 90 minutes long, but for the first 75-80 of those minutes, you'll never guess what the monster looks like. It's all POV shots of... well, it could be anything, really. Does it have arms? Legs? Teeth? Claws? Wings? Is it large, small? You just don't know, and the only clues you're given are from first-person point of view shots as the monster skulks around in the shadows.The movie tries to fill that void with stronger characters, and admittedly, the cast here isn't bad. There's some fun banter and decent characterization in the long, slow lead up to the monster finally taking action. But it just isn't enough. I eventually found myself getting bored, waiting for literally anything to happen. And that fun banter? Sometimes it's laid on just a little too thick.The Boogens finally slams on the gas pedal in the last ten minutes, but for all the setup the payoff feels thin and rushed. It's a race against a creature we've only just barely been introduced to. It doesn't help that when the creature is finally given the spotlight, I found it to look more silly than scary -- and maybe even a little cute.The Boogens is... tolerable, but not great. As a horror movie, it's just not very suspenseful. But you could do worse. That's the best endorsement I can give it.

"The Boogens", despite its name, is a well paced horror film which pays justice to the cult monster movies of the 1950's. The editing style gives the viewer a well balanced blend of suspense, shock and gore to make the film both eerie and frightening. Old, forgotten evil and shunned places have informed some of the best horror ever since H. P. Lovecraft first set foot in haunted Arkham. Therefore, "The Boogens", with its eerie mine shafts and mysterious creatures has a lot going for it. Thankfully, the director doesn't saddle the film with dumb-as-dirt characters and goofy clichés. We actually come to care for these people(a titanic achievement for many of today's filmmakers). A great emphasis is placed on generating suspense in lieu of tiresome "pop-ups." A product of budgetary concerns, this nonetheless works in the film's favor. If the titular monsters are less than life-like, at least the smart editing obscures this.On the plus side, the cast is kind of fun, with recognizable faces Rebecca Balding (Silent Scream and TV's Soap) Fred McCarren (Xanadu), Anne-Marie Martin (Dori Doreau on TV's Sledge Hammer!) and veteran character actors John Crawford (all over 60's and 70's television, like Batman and Mission Impossible) and Jon Lormer (Creepshow). The Boogens themselves are mostly represented through low to the ground point of view shots for the first hour or so in classic pre CGI monster movie style until they are finally revealed in all their early 80's animatronics glory near the climax. All in all, this one almost succeeds, but the draggy middle and lack of exposition end up making it only for 80's horror completists in the end.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

A boarded up silver mine in snowy Colorado is blasted open and nasty creatures are unleashed and start wrecking havoc. Caught in the crossfire are a pair of couples (and their seriously adorable dog) in a guest house where the "boogens" can easily enter through the basement. The film is very atmospheric and the snowy locations and nice cinematography provide gorgeous scenery throughout. The small town setting is nicely captured and you really get a feel for the place. The horror; well, not so much a scary movie "The Boogens" is but it does generate a sense of dread, an eerie mood and a few set pieces are very well done. The acting, by relative unknowns, is first rate and the characters are all likable; not that common for a creature feature from the early 80's. "The Boogens" does boast spectacularly fake looking creatures but they're wisely kept out of sight 'till the very end. Most horror aficionados will probably be in a forgiving frame of mind as a low budget most definitely contributed to that factor and they'll appreciate all the other things the flick does so well. All in all; highly recommended for horror buffs.

After an opening montage of newspaper headlines ("Motherlode Found!" segues to "Mine Closed Forever By Gruesome Death!" or some such) establishing that this mine is a Dangerous Place, we meet Roger and Mark, two young miners-in-training, hired to help two older and crustier miners (Brian and Dan) re-open the Mine of Death.Roger (Jeff Harlan, who looks a little too much like David Spade for my comfort) and Mark (Fred McCarren) have rented a house together near the mine. Roger is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his girlfriend, and his early dialogue consists almost entirely of smarmy jokes about how long it's been since he got some. Mark is leery of a set-up with Jessica's friend, Trish, who is helping Jessica move; he refers to the last blind date Roger set up for him as "Quasimodo's daughter".Jessica (Anne-Marie Martin) and Trish (Rebecca Balding) arrive in a VW bug, accompanied by a spirited miniature poodle named Tiger. I must confess I found Jessica a little distracting, since I was more familiar with her splendid, scenery-chewing turn as the bitchy Wendy in "Prom Night" and it was odd to see her acting like a nice person.A white-haired old man slinks periodically through the narrative, looking furtive and atmospheric so you know he's got Knowledge Of The Past. Hijinks ensue almost immediately as the guys knock a hole in the wall of the mine, freeing monsters who earlier tunneled into every house in town (hence the early murders that closed the mine) and were just waiting to be set free to murder and maim anew. The monsters promptly take advantage of the miner's carelessness by setting up shop in the basement of Mark and Roger's house, which sets up the first killing: Roger and Mark's landlady, who has come to open up the house and makes a fateful trip to the basement.The second victim is Roger himself, who takes a break from banging his girlfriend to get some sleep and is yanked under his work truck by a tentacle. The third victim, sadly, is Tiger, arguably one of the best actors in the film. That's where the movie and I parted company; I can't stand movies where the dog dies. When Jessica gets out of the bathtub to investigate Tiger's howls, she discovers his tiny corpse, and is promptly gnawed to death clad only a towel. The director seems to have had a thing about personal daintiness, because for the women in this movie, bathing is invariably fatal: Jessica dies fresh from the tub, the landlady is killed in her bathrobe after showering, and Mark's first view of Trish is her naked backside as she stands, dripping and be-toweled, in a doorway. Somewhere in between monster attacks, Mark and Trish discover they are hot for each other and have gauzy 80's sex in front of the fireplace.Things clatter to a predictable conclusion: Brian and Dan discover the remains of Roger, whose face has been chewed off; Mark rescues Trish from the Basement of Death, seconds before one of the monsters attaches itself to the face of the Sheriff; Brian and Dan die honorably, attempting to save Mark; the old man turns out to have The Key To It All, and the mine shaft and house are blown up real good.There are standout moments: a sequence in a pool hall, where Jessica turns out to be a ringer on the order of Minnesota Fats and wins a handful of cash from Brian and Dan; the flirtatious coupling of Mark and Trish, made believable by genuine chemistry between the actors; the foursome leaving the house and admonishing Tiger to behave -- after which Tiger promptly paws open the bedroom closet and settles down to gnaw a shoe. As has been mentioned before, the fact that the monsters don't really show their faces until the very end of the movie is a good thing, not because they are laughable (which they kind of are) but because they are a lot scarier before you see them.I give the movie 7 out of 10, but only because they killed the damn dog.