The Boogey Man (1980)

When Willy and Lacey were kids, they watched their mom and her boyfriend - who wore her stockings on his face - make out. Their mother was so upset, she sent Lacey to her room and tied Willy to his bed. It didn't work, though. Willy would get out and stab the guy to death with a giant knife in front of a mirror. And that's only the first few minutes of this one! Now we're in the present and Lacey (Suzanna Love, who was married to the director of the film Ulli Lommel and appears in all the sequels) is married with a young son, living with her aunt, uncle and Willy (Nicholas Love, Suzanna's real-life brother)on a farm. Willy's never gotten over killing a man, so he doesn't talk and often steals knives.Over dinner, Lacey announces that their mother wants to see them one last time before she dies. Willy burns their letter and this starts off a series of dreams where she is tied to a bed and nearly stabbed, which makes her husband send her to a shrink.And that shrink? Skinny Dracula himself, John Carradine, who shot everything in one day. He tells them that she has face her fears and go back to her childhood home. As they look at the house, we see the dead boyfriend reflected in the mirror he died in front of. Lacey goes crazy and smashes it, which is totally not what you should do. Nor should you take those pieces and try and fix the mirror. Mirrors are cheap. Go to Wal-Mart. Buy a new and uncursed mirror.The pieces left behind start to glow red and kill everyone in the house after Lacey and Jake leave. Speaking of mirrors, Willy hates them. One of them made him strangle a girl, so he paints them all black.The shards of glass start doing evil things, like levitate pitchforks, rip off Lacey's shirt and impale young lovers with a screwdriver. I was cool with the shards of glass until then. You've taken it too far, shards of glass! I guess we can blame them for the aunt and uncle dying too, right?This being 1980, Jake decides to bring a priest in to fix everything. This causes Lacey to get possessed by a mirror shard and attack everyone. She kills the priest, too, but not before he removes the mirror's control over her.That's when the best solution comes up - let's just throw the mirror in a well. This releases all of the souls, with Lacey, Willy and her son happily exiting a graveyard. Oh no - a piece of the mirror is on her son's shoe!I was wondering where so many of the plot points of this movie would go and they're often lost as if this were a foreign film. But it isn't! So I did a little digging into the director, Ulli Lommel.Lommel had one crazy career, starting with appearing in Russ Meyer's Fanny Hill, then acting in Fassbinder's surreal western film Whitey (as well as several other of the director's films). Moving to the U.S. in 1977, Lommel became connected to Andy Warhol, who became involved in his films Cocaine Cowboys and Blank Generation, a movie that starred Richard Hell and was filmed at CBGB.Seriously - a movie that rips off Halloween, The Amityville Horror and Argento lighting while feeling like more than two movies mashed up into one that also features a girl cut her own throat with scissors, a child get his neck broken and a priest get his face melted? The acting is horrible - but are you here for that? Nope. You want to get freaked out when people's eyes get replaced with a piece of a mirror.

After the surprise success of Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, about a hundred imitations quickly followed between 1979 and 1982. Some of these, like Friday THE 13TH, even spawned their own imitations. However, one of these slashers took events in a slightly different direction; it still had the same gruesome murders, but this time the killer was trapped inside a mirror. This film was THE BOGEY MAN.In the opening scenes, the HALLOWEEN influence is clear, with a young boy murdering his mother's lover. The murders are all staged with relish, and most of them are absurd enough to be funny. The acting is substandard (what do you expect from an '80s slasher?) and the music is ripped straight off HALLOWEEN, with the familiar tinkling tune and point of view killer shots. A character is killed with kitchen cutlery in a scene ripped from CARRIE, while a girl speaks in a demonic voice, just like in THE EXORCIST. These are just two of the scenes you'll spot from other films.It's good to see John Carradine in another role, but like most of his latter day films, he's only in it for a few minutes. It's enough. THE BOGEY MAN enjoys the notorious reputation of having been banned as a 'video nasty' in this enlightened country of ours, and therefore there is a kind of dirty, gritty feel to be had while watching it. It's not in the least bit disturbing as the video cover would have you believe though ("However, some may still consider the content to be unsuitable viewing material, and find certain scenes to be disturbing or offensive. IF IN DOUBT, DO NOT VIEW"). Vipco certainly made their films sound interesting, it's just a shame that the version they released is the cut one. Still, THE BOGEY MAN is a slasher with a slightly more inventive premise than most, and it passes the time quite amiably. Just don't expect it to be another HALLOWEEN when watching...

Dismal tone, terrible effects (for that time), cheesy acting. One of the worst films I have ever witnessed and never wish to view again. Seems like the film was made on a pocket change budget, I will give the director credit for trying, but this is a gigantic failure of epic proportions. Not scary, nor intimidating, nor intriguing, nor artistic in any sense of the terms. I urge everyone to steer clear away from this garbage. I wanted to stop the film as soon as I saw the stabbing (which looked like he was stabbing a pillow) scene but my tenacity to always watch from start to finish overcame me. I regret doing so.The movie depicts a little girl cutting her brother free from his binds after their mother's lover tied him up. The boy then murders the man in front of a mirror, and the mirror is haunted by the man he killed. Loving this so far, eh? Over time a shard of the mirror causes weird phenomenon among those it is closest around, ending with their impossible and cheesy demises. In the end, they run it under a faucet after a priest has blessed it, turning it into holy water, and apparently ridding the curse from the shard or some other such nonsense.But wait... Earlier in the film, a boy had stepped on an alternative piece of the mirror and it got stuck on his shoe, and at the end of the film, it lets up. As they walk away into the bleak conclusion, the other piece unconvincingly glows red. Dun dun dun, I guess.This movie is terrible, I hated everything about it, the premise, the acting, the effects, the ending, everything. It saves itself from a 1/10 only because... while it is dreadful, it is original.

Well I was always interested in seeing the original Boogeyman and I finally had my chance cause it was on demand. Well I have to say is it's like a combo of Halloween, The Exorcist, and Final Destination. And I didn't really get who the killer was supposed to be. Was it supposed to be the spirit of the guy who wore that weird mask thingy in the beginning that got stabbed by the little kid? What was the deal? And I kinda felt bad for the kid when he grew up cause he never talked ever since. But he finally talks at the end. And I was highly let down that this movie is called Boogeyman and they never even mention the name 'Boogeyman' and I don't know who the Boogeyman is ever supposed to be! They don't even talk about the Boogeyman! I was let down by that. Over all, this was a okay movie. It was very weird! It had some kinda creepy moments. It's one of those not bad but not great movies.