Revenge of the Boogeyman - Will's Review

Before I even get to my thoughts on this movie, I should explain the delay.

Knowing that this movie was also known as "Boogeyman 2" I went right on ahead and got a copy of "Boogeyman 2". Except, when that movie started, the on screen title was "Boogeyman 2: Redux"...

This was enough to make me pause and launch into research mode: it seems that in 2002, Co-Director / co-writer Ulli Lommel went back and filmed some new scenes (of himself - he's also an actor in both versions of this movie) and re-edited "Revenge of the Boogeyman" into a whole new movie, which is available as "Boogeyman 2: Redux" or "Boogeyman 2: The Directors Cut" Which is a bit of a cheek as Bruce Star is the listed director on the original version. To confuse matters further, the original and redux versions both share an IMDB and Wikipedia page, as they are classed as different cuts of the same movie.

For the sake of completeness, we should probably go back and review Redux as part of our next project once we've finished with the DPP list...

Anyway, onto the real "Revenge of The Boogeyman":
I mentioned that Lommel co-wrote/directed this; What is actually meant by that is that of the movie's 80min runtime, he wrote and directed the 31mins that are recycled footage from the first film!

Yes, over a third of this movie is "flashbacks" to the first film; all of those moments are in the first half of the film, and I found it interesting that the first half of this film was not only much better than the second half, but was actually better than the original 'The Boogeyman'.

One small thing though - I don't remember John Carradine farting in the original:

I swear I did not add that sound effect!

Not only is the pacing of original movie benefit from the "cliffs notes" approach, but the surrounding story is reasonably interesting; 6 months after the events of "The Boogeyman", Lacy (the girl from the original) has gone to visit her friend Bonnie in LA; and it just so happens that Bonnies husband, Mickey is a European Film director (Played by  Lommel). It's not long before Lacy is telling her friends what happened 6 months ago - while Bonney and Mickey's butler, Joseph listens in...

There is also a conversation between Joseph and Bonnie's daughter, which has an inexplicable voice-effect added to it, for no reason whatsoever:

Joseph also soon discovers that Lacy still has a piece of the mirror, which she carries around in a box full of charms, talismans, and crystals.

It's not long before Bonnie is throwing a party in Lacy's honour (inviting loads of Hollywood types along as she believes Lacy's story could be made into the movie that will launch Lommel's Mickey's into mainstreem success).  Meanwhile Joseph steals the mirror fragment and chaos ensues.

The Hollywood types are not painted in a remotely flattering light (word is that Lommel objected to the idea of a sequel, and this was his post-modern attack on the Hollywood system) constantly seducing people lower down the 'food chain' or being horrendously tactless to lacy, and it's no shame when they start getting picked off.

Sadly, this is where the film takes a rapid downturn, each death in the new part of the movie is preceded by a weird lighting effect; it goes completely dark, and then a spotlight (supposedly the reflection from the mirror) flashes around the area, usually in the face of the victims - but it is never clear (or rather, it is usually very clear, but entirely inconsistent) whether the characters are aware of the lighting change, or if it is just for our benefit. The victims also stand around looking blank long after things have taken a turn for the strange; one character gets smacked on the ass by a ladder and ends up with a car exhaust in her mouth, but then just crouches there, looking surprised, for a good 30 seconds while the car starts itself!

There also seems to be a strange obsession with keeping the killers identity a secrete even though they have the mirror fragment, which we saw Joseph steal!

An interesting novelty, and half-worth checking out if you haven't seen The Boogyman (or if you haven't seen it for a while), but far FAR from great.

Body Count: 13 (Including 6 of the 8 killings from the original)
Most Memorable Death: Make sure you rush all the way to the back!

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The Boogeyman - Will's Review

RELATIVELY MINOR SPOILERS

John Carradine!!! An actual actor!

That's what when trough my head as the opening credits rolled.... unfortunately, it was a case of "lets book a 'name' for one day and film 3 scenes with him in an inconsequential roll, that way we can get his name on the poster without going over budget" a trick that rarely, if ever, indicates a great film...



The film opens with a couple of kids, Lacy and Willy, perving on their mum getting it on on the sofa with her latest boyfriend (who has one of her stockings placed over his head as part of their foreplay - whether this is because he is a foot fetishist, or she's a bank-robber fetishist is never explained), mum spots them and is complicit in (indeed, encouraging of) her partners selected punishment - the little girl is sent to bed scot free, while her brother is gagged and tied to his bed, while mum and her (still stocking faced) fella go of to finish what they started in the master bedroom.

The little girl decided to free her brother using the biggest fucking knife in the house, before her brother traets us to an 'Halloween' "homage" then stabs the abusive bastard who tied him up (sadly, he lets his mother get away with her part in events).

Instant 'Halloween': Just add eye-holes...

Years later, Lacy and Willy are all growed up, and live on their aunt and uncle's farm, along with Lacy's husband, Jack, and son, Kevin. Willy is mute, and both siblings seem to have issues with knives (which I get) and mirrors (because Lacy watched the murder in a mirror, and Willy.... was watched in a mirror... okay, so I don't know why Willy has mirror issues - but he does!).

Speaking of the farm, having used the above 'Halloween' POV shot, The film-makers obviously decided to cover their asses using the old adage "Steal from one and it's plagerism, steal from many and it's research", because this is the farmhouse:

The Boogymanville Horror.

Lacy and Willie get a letter from their mother requesting they visit, which never happens and is never mentioned again, and to make a long story short (and to break the pattern of  my reviews being little more than a cynical synopsis) Lacy's therapist (Carradine, badly underused as I mentioned) suggests that she goes to the house where she grew up - in order to form new memories of the house, which do not involve "that night".

Speaking of the shrink, the hypnosis session leads to another "better movie 'homage'" scene:

"Your mother sucks boogymen in hell!"

By the way - does anyone else think it odd that the slightly-perturbed sibling has a shrink, but the one who actually killed someone and hasn't spoken a word in the 20 years since is left to his own devices to collect knives?

Anyhoo, as luck would have it, the old house is up for sale, so Lacy and Jack go to see the place, where they encounter the (ahead of his time) brilliantly named "Timmy", who lives in the house with his 2 older siosters (and their parents, who are away). Why brilliantly named? well, this:

BOOGYTIMMEH!!!!

Thankfully, Timmy and his siblings are cannon fodder, and don't last long after our leads leave (although one of them is incredibly soft skulled, being killed my a tap on the noggin with a medicine cabinet door).

While they are there, Lacy visits her Mum's old bedroom (where Willy did in the asshat) and she is convinced she sees old stocking face in the mirror; this being a movie, she has no qualms whatsoever about picking up a chair in someone else's house and battering the mirror into pieces! Her husband pays for the damage, and takes the pieces of mirror home to glue back together (!) in an attempt to demonstrate to his wife that the mirror is safe (except for all of the sharp broken-glass edges, obviously) and jebus, is this guy good at puzzles?!

Willy admires his brother-in-law's mad jigsaw skillz.

All of which amounts to set-up as, finally, 45 minuets into the movie's 80 minuet run time, the haunted mirror and the traumatised duo are all where they need to be! Huzzah!

From here on in people get possessed, other people die, priests are called, a mirror fragment flies across the room and embed itself as a ghoulish monocle, and being stabbed in the back causes a certain character to bleed profusely... from the top of his head (!).

From a technical point of view, the film is reminiscent of John Carpenter; before you get too excited, I want to to remember that Carpenter is a very overrated film maker! There; I said it! yes, I know it's horror heresy, but lets remember that he didn't just bring us "Halloween", "Halloween II", "The Thing" and "In the mouth of Madness"; he also gave the world a dreadful segment "hair" from the movie "Body Bags", the gadawfull (and utterly unnecessary) "Village of the Damned" remake, the risible "Vampires" and the decidedly average "Prince of Darkness" (worth seeing mainly for the bit where Alice Cooper runs someone through with a bicycle), so when I say "reminiscent of John Carpenter", I mean "...but not on a good day".


All in all, it's not so bad, but it's not great either - I want to tell you that it's terrible and don't bother, but I think I'm just losing patience with these films, as I gave both Absurd and Anthropophagus a pass as forgiveable time-killers, and it's better than either of those!

Body Count: 8
Animal Body Count: 0
Boob Count: 1 pair
Most Memorable Death: French kiss kebab.

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The Boogeyman - Lisa's Review

*** Contains Spoilers ***

This one is a slightly more modern one in the list being from 1980, but does more recent necessarilly mean better? Having watched this movie, it seems not.

We start this movie with a cringeworthy scene with a couple getting cozy on the sofa. The lady in the scene slowly takes off a stocking and oddly puts it over her beaus face (I think it was meant to be sexy, but I don't know what man would find a stinking stocking over his face alluring, or what woman wants to get it on with a thug).

We see 2 young kids watching these erotic goings on from outside the window and find out these are the womans children - Lacey & Willy. Upon catching them spying (why would you want to watch your mother getting it on???) they decide a suitable punishment for Willy is to tie him (gagged) to a bed... Hmmmm questionable. The amorous couple continue with their shenanigans where aforementioned bloke is asked by mother of the year to take the stinking stocking off as 'she doesn't like it any more'. ....meanwhile..... a young Lacey to the rescue, she comes in to the bedroom with a bloody big knife (they make a poor attempt to have us think she is going to dispense with her brother) and cuts Willy free. He goes in and interrupts his mum and her lover and stabs the lover to death! Lovely boy! (I didn't blame him really).

So we have the background for our movie. Onwards.

We cut to the future and a church. This is soley to show us they are god fearing types and introduce us to the stereotypically irish-named Father Reilly, who we will encounter again later. Lacey is married with a young son and lives with her aunt and uncle and Willy, who appears to be a bit backwards. Funny how they always accentuate this by putting the adult character in dungarees....

We have a nice family meal which is used mainly to draw our attention to the fact Willy doesn't speak, Lacey has not got over what happened all those years ago and keeps getting flashbacks when she see's knives and they get a letter from their mother asking to see them. To build on Laceys problem we are treated to one of her nightmares in which she pictures herself in satin and lace blue underwear laying on a bed (doesn't seem much point with sod all to fill it and I found myself wondering if male viewers were disappointed by the lack or boobs, or if indeed it matters ? Will?) She wakes up and is telling her husband about the dream (as the duvet hovers precariously just above her boobs - I bet Will was poised with that pen waiting for the reveal that never came). Her husband decides she needs to 'Get rid of these ghosts once and for all' and suggests she takes her mother up on the offer to meet up and also to go to see the house again to remember it 'how it is now and not how it was then'. Oddly we never arrange a visit with mum and its never mentioned again...

We then cut to a psychiatrists visit which isnt really worth mentioning. He hypnotises Lacey so she can talk about THAT night and she wakes with a ridiculous scream and a stupid voice, like one you would put on to scare a child. I didn't see much of a point for the character at all to be honest.

My notes next say 'Bra-less tart comes to farm and attempts to seduce Willy'. I don't think I need to elaborate any more on that. Her denim jump suit was appalling, she needed a bra badly, her advances were cringe-worthy (including the line that she didn't care that he didn't speak, she liked the fact he was different). Willy rejects her advances by lifting her off the ground and attempting to strange her *snigger*. He watches his actions in a mirror - quite the voyeur our Willy. He drops her, she runs away - shame that.

We are next treated to a scene where Willy is painting all the mirrors in the house black (much to his aunts annoyance). So there is obviously a mirror problem here....

Next off Lacey and her husband have arranged to go to see the old house which is conveniently up for sale so they can have a nose around. As they walk in, we see 2 young, attractive women (how much to guess if they end up as cannon fodder or get their boobs out I wonder...). Lacey has a bit of a moment in the bedroom where it all happened, when she see's the guy her brother killed all those years ago in the mirror (its that mirror thing again) walking towards her. She does what all daft bints in movies do and smashes the mirror in a complete strangers house with a chair. Her husband picks up all the pieces and brings it back with them to fix.... whats all that about???

As predicted the scenes which follow in the house when Lacey and her husband leave, involve both girls (and an annoying child who was also there, I think he was one of the girls sons) to meet their end. Bravo to the film makers for even managing to possess both women and have one hack a large opening in her top so we can have a look at her boobs. She then uses the same scissors to stab herself in the neck. The annoying kid is watching this through the window (what is it with perverted children spying on their mothers?) and the heavy window slides down and drops on his neck *snigger*. The second woman wanders into the bathroom with a sliver of mirror, throws it into the sink and it bursts into flames.... the bathroom cabinet then starts shaking and it swings open and biffs her in the face... I didn't quite understand how this killed her, but it hardly mattered.

We go back to the farm and spot shards of the mirror on the floor, some odd things happen, like flying pitchforks, pieces fly out of the mirror that Laceys husband is trying in vain to repair. I'm dying to hit the FWD button at this stage..... Ok ok so the mirror is possessed with the spirit of this dead guy and weird shit is happening.... where are we going with this.

Next we cut to Lacey & her son fishing on a jetty. We spot a piece of mirror glistening on the sole of Laceys shoe. Hmmmm. This however sets up the best part in the film for me. There are 2 couples having a BBQ on the beach not far from where these 2 are fishing. Blah blah blah.. all pretty boring UNTIL one of a rather amorous pair (it makes sure to set up how much they are all over one another) goes to the car to make to leave and gets a skewer through the back of the head, but thats not it!! Thats not what caused a giggle fest here. His girlfriend comes to see whats keeping him and he turns sideways (avec skewer) and looks at her. The door of the car closes on her bum, pushing her into the car and into what you could call 'a deadly embrace'. They are locked into a kiss and she is skewered also (with the same skewer) oooh how I laughed! What made it even more humorous is that their friends think they are having an extra long kiss and just leave them there.

Finally the husband, aunt and uncle realise Lacey was right about the mirror, so Father Reilly is called (remember him?). We can see he is trying to exorcise this spirit from the mirror. We are all at this stage standing in kitchen, the mirror glows red,everyone stares open mouthed (and yes I mean seriously mouth agog). A shard flies out and into what seems like Laceys eye. (this is a really piss poor effect. At this stage the action (if it can be called that) cuts away and into barn. There is muchos commotion and people go to investigate. Uncle dearest is fixed to the roof by a pitchfork and auntie is in a cupboard tangled in a hosepipe (is it wrong that I also found this a bit funny?

We then cut back to house (because I was on tenderhooks about that red glowing mirror and eye glass). Lacey is nonchalantly preparing dinner and doesn’t seem to care that her uncle and aunt are dead. ‘That’s dinner for 4 then’ she utters. She turns around, piece of glass (or what looks like tinfoil) is glinting in her eye. For some unknown reason, her husbands eyes start bleeding. Enter Father Reilly!!!! He approaches her with crucifix (gotta love that god on a stick) She seems to be levitating as she is considerably taller than him, but it never shows her feet or makes an issue of it. As he reaches to remove the shard of glass, he bleeds more profusely from his head. He manages to pull it free, releasing her from the possession. When he turns around, his back is full of a collection of knives we saw earlier in a drawer which we assumed belonged to Willy, who is watching all of this unfolding with no reaction.

We end the story in a graveyard. There is a piece of glass on Laceys sons shoe. He jumps up and down, it comes off and is left in graveyard as they travel home.

Big waste of time, crap movie. I can't help but wonder why they didn't make more of Willys character but seemed to just leave him alone after he dispensed with the bra-less tart. Also we had David Caradine (a fantastic actor we have to admit) who is barely used and to be honest his character (the doctor) is neither here nor there.

I watched A LOT of horrors in the 80's (my dad is a big fan) and I have to say this is probably pretty much on par with some of the worst ones. Pretty typical to be honest. Not something I would sit through again, it has to be said.

How this was ever a 'video nasty' is anyones guess. Ok so it was removed from the list but how the hell did it ever get on there in the first place?

Boring, banal, bland, dull, bad script, predictably awful, non-memorable deaths, failure to expand on the only promising things about the movie. In all, bloody crap!

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