The Boogeyman has made an interesting figure in horror cinema. The recent film of that name offered a bland ending after a number of tantalizing sequences that loosely explored the idea of fear. But of course we all now that we have a lot more to be afraid of than fear itself. Much more interesting and surreal is Uli Lommel's 1980 take on just why all of us keep our closet doors closed at night.
BOOGEYMAN/RETURN OF THE BOOGEYMAN
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
The availability of the 1980 slasher film The Boogeyman in it's original aspect ratio of 1:85:1 is important if only to wipe away the mystery that has surrounded it amongst fans unable to judge for themselves just what virtues it possesses. Surprisingly, though clearly an exploitation film, it emerges relatively unscathed after a critical viewing but only among its fellows. At it's heart it is a film striving against a formula that others before it rested in and deserves a minor place among the better slashers.
A child takes horrible revenge on his mother's abusive boyfriend while his sister watches the scene from a mirror. Years later when the mirror is shattered the boyfriend returns through the light that the mirror's shards reflect. Everyone who looks is forced to carry out the murderous whims of the boogeyman.
To be sure this film borrows an awful lot from Halloween. From it's repetitive synthesized score to its central situation. But if director Ulli Lommel should be credited with anything it's his imaginative use of camera and willingness to make a supernatural horror film in a time when the slasher rarely offered anything more than a vengeful man in a mask. We do get a vengeful man, and a mask and a series of gruesome killings but we also get a decent metaphor involving a broken mirror and a series of uniquely uncomfortable and unexpected moments that lift this above and showcase the promise that flowered into a unique combination of exploitation and expertly drawn drama.
In one sequence a little girl picks up a large knife approaching her slightly older brother who is tied to a bed. Will she stab him or cut him loose? We realize that we have no way of knowing. When the knife is used later in the film the graphic quality of the killing is all the more potent. Another sequence appears out of nowhere only to reveal itself as a nightmare through a stylish flash of light bouncing off the edge of a knife. In still another scene a young woman turns to reveal that a piece of the mirror has replaced her eye. Lommel's small budget and inexperienced actors bring a sense of the everyday unstudied sort of horror that is the stuff of nightmares precisely because it barely seems calculated. This isn't a great film but it will greatly interest genre fans.
Boogeyman 2 is included here probably because it saves the studio the cost of printing up a separate disc and cover art. Only the hardcore should bother watching especially since Boogeyman 2 isn't really Boogeyman 2 but a sequel to the 2nd film in the Boogeyman series. Confused? It's also worth noting that the Boogeyman 2 film included here actually contains so much flashback footage from The Boogeyman that it barely qualifies as another film at all. There are no extras on the disc to speak of. It would be very interesting to have a commentary track explaining the influential history of a film that has survived critical attack and unavailability for a number of years.