(2005)
2
Jeremy Wheeler
Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures brings you Boogeyman, a modern retelling of the age-old kids' fable that works for a few of its nicely crafted scares before diving headfirst into a ridiculous finale that's downright embarrassing. Before its free fall into imbecilic stupidity, the movie is actually not that bad. Barry Watson is an altogether acceptable male lead, while Zooey Deschanel's sister Emily is a fresh face who is immediately likable as his love interest. So there's actually a contemporary horror movie out there with a likable cast? Incredible, but true. Sadly, the movie loses it in the last third of the flick, where Raimi and producing partner Rob Tapert's fixation with Japanese horror rears its ugly and unnecessary head. Not only that, but even worse, the film self-implodes upon the reveal of the monster -- which looks uncannily like a reject from an early Resident Evil Playstation video game. The inclusion of this laughable beast is shocking in the worst way and kills anything that the film had going for it, including top-notch production design and neat camera tricks that fool you into thinking that there might be hope for this little flick yet. Never mind that the realm of the monster and his imminent defeat make zero sense in all realms of logic, basically resigning the pixilated goon to be kicked to death as he's sucked into an electromagnetic hole created when the hero breaks a kid's plasma globe -- if you're confused, join the club.
Boogeyman on AllMovie
Boogeyman (2005)
