The Boogeyman

We all have experienced nightmares in our lives. Some we may not remember while some we remember for specific reasons. It could be that the nightmare was traumatic or horrible no matter what the dream was about. I remember one dream i had quite a long time ago, i believe it was around the summer of 2006. In the dream i dreamt that i had the police knocking on my door and wanted to tell me something, that my high school friend Patrick have been brutally murdered. They asked me if i knew if Patrick had any enemies and i said not any that i know of. I answered their other questions as well and i tried to call his mother to show my deepest sympathy. The next day i was on my way to work as my cell phone started vibrating. It was Patrick´s brother Dennis calling completely torn apart. Since i was walking to work i had a little bit of time to talk so i asked him if he have heard anything on who it could be. He wasn´t sure but he suspected a local preacher who lived near by Patrick. I was very surprised of why he suspected a preacher but Dennis said:- You don´t know Daniel the sins this man has commited. After that i woke up and i remember calling Patrick just to see if it was all a dream. He asked if i wanted to go along and get a pizza and so i did. I told him about the dream while we had food and he laughed and said:- You watched way too many horror films. This is one of the few nightmares i still remember because it was really horrible, especially when you dreamed about someone you know very well from high school. Speaking of nightmares maybe as a kid you thought you saw monsters in your closet? The concept of this was used in the 2005 supernatural horror film Boogeyman from director Stephen Kay. This film is inspired by the mythical creature known as Boogeyman and tells the story of young Tim Jensen ( Aaron Murpy ) who witnesses his father being taken by the Boogeyman, an evil creature which lives in all closets worldwide. Now as adult, Tim ( Barry Watson ) finds out that Boogeyman never went away and still to this day show up in closets. I enjoyed Boogeyman when the film came out in 2005 and i recently decided to watch the film again. It is ok and have some fun moments, but you can tell that the CGI effects have aged. This is why i was curious to see if the new remake The Boogeyman would be any good. I finally sat down and watched this film and the question is, does this remake work better than the 2005 film or is this film a disaster from start to finish?

The Harper family, sisters Sadie Harper ( Sophie Thatcher ), Sawyer Harpie ( Vivien Lyra Blair ) and their therapist father Will Harper ( Chris Messina ), are struggling to overcome the death their mother and wife, who died suddenly in a car crash. One day, a disturbed man called Lester Billings ( David Dastmalchian ) visits Bill´s office. Lester explains that his three children have died, all killed by an evil entity that latched onto his family. A disbelieving Will goes to call the police. Lester slips away and Sadie finds his body hanging in her mother´s art closet. Soon afterwards, Sadie notices a strange mold beginning to form around the house. It seems that the creature that followed Lester´s family is now insie the Harper family´s home.

If you did see the 2005 film Boogeyman and you are a fan of that film, you might as well know that this latest remake does things a bit different than the previous film adaptation. The Boogeyman in 2023 is much more about atmosphere than showing monsters attacking, and i am actually thankful for that. I feel that if you are going to make a horror film about what awaits in the dark you might as well make a film that focus more on the atmosphere than showing what is actually hiding in the dark. And in some scenes they actually manage to capture that atmosphere and make it pretty effective. I wonder if they were inspired by the 2014 Australian horror film The Babadook ( one of my personal favourite horror films of the year of 2014 ) where the plot was very simple but very well executed with a creepy atmopshere. Of course i have to be honest and say The Boogeyman is not as effective as The Babadook when it comes to build up tensions, but i still feel that this remake have a lot more going for it if you compare with the 2005 film. I really like the lead role from actress Sophie Thatcher ( fans of TV series Yellowjackets might recognize her ) playing the character of Sadie. I think what makes this character interesting is that we see her struggle loosing her mother, while being in a very sensitive age and dealing with life in general. A lot of young women would most likely understand where she is coming from and i feel that they manage to capture that well in the film. There are some other character that work as well but let´s get to my biggest issue with this film and that is we don´t get any real background information about the beast other than small details. Considering that they had such a great concept for the film with a dark figure lurking in the dark they could have found a much more effective way to pull that off in several scenes by telling the creature´s history. When the film works it´s pretty effective but they could have done this even more effective than what we are presented with. I do feel however that director Rob Savage ( director of the great Shudder film known as Host, definetely worth checking out ) have made a horror film that works better than most scary movies released today thanks to the right atmosphere. The Boogeyman is definetely a film that will most likely please fans who enjoyed The Babadook, even though it is not as good as that film. I still enjoyed this remake either way and i would recommend the film is you want to watch a good horror film. Lesson learned kids, stay away from closets.

Rating: DDD