Dir.
Stephen Kay, 2005, USA/New Zealand/Germany, 86 mins
Cast: Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Lucy Lawless
The horror genre's current self-proclaimed saviours are producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert and, being the creators of the cult Evil Dead trilogy, they have all the required qualifications. Boogeyman, the second film from Raimi and Taperts' Ghost House Pictures label (the first being the recent re-make of The Grudge), attempts to combine a suspense-laden Japanese visual style with a homegrown Hollywood storyline. As director Stephen Kay rightly states, "Scream and Scary Movie have deconstructed and demystified the horror movie, so you have to look for the new language of horror movies and it's coming to the rest of the world via Japan and Korea".
The story centres on Tim (Watson) who as a boy witnessed his father being dragged into his bedroom closet, never to return. As an adult Tim is still haunted by the irrational fear of the shadows in the closet or under the bed that most children grow out of. When his mother (Lawless) dies Tim resolves to confront his fear by spending a night in his childhood home.
When considered separately there are some truly unique and accomplished elements to Boogeyman. For example, the all important reveal of the monster is held off until very late in the film, with lingering close-ups on cracks in doorways and ceilings along with a couple of eerie p.o.v shots leaving our imagination to do the work. It is here that Kay's direction and Bobby Bukowski's cinematography really stand out with a visual style that makes us suspicious of every shadow in the scenery. There is also an innovative use of space and time - the most visually interesting scene in the film being that in which Tim chases the Boogeyman through a series of closets and cupboards emerging in a different room every time. The overall sense of Tim's developing paranoia is enhanced by a good performance from Emily Deschanel playing his sceptical childhood friend. 12-year-old Skye Bartusiak is also convincing as a girl on the trail of the Boogeyman, opening up an interesting mythology for a fairly limited monster. However, when combined these elements do not produce a coherent or even enjoyable whole.
The most important element of a story of this nature is our identification with the main character. We have to believe throughout that Tim is not delusional; that his fears are real and can be confronted. Our first obstacle is the overuse of cheap scares presumably intended to quicken the pace. Unfortunately there is little or no rational reason behind any of these moments provoking a sense that Tim, prone to frequent, random hallucinations, probably is mad after all. They also punctuate the carefully built up suspense far too often, never allowing the atmosphere to become more than vaguely unsettling. The second and more devastating problem is the character of Tim himself. The obvious effort to make him an everyman for all to identify with has produced a character as bland and lifeless as the CGI effects that cripple the ending. Watson does the best he can to inject some life into Tim but is hindered by a script (credited to three writers) that contains little more than one or two lines of purely expositional dialogue per scene. The final nail in the coffin is the aforementioned CGI monstrosity himself.
In a chaotic third act all comparisons to Japanese cinema are trashed as the screen becomes a mess of Hollywood effects-driven confusion.
Sadly, Boogeyman does no favours for the horror genre and it would be easy to say that if this is all Raimi and Tapert have taken from Japanese horror films then perhaps they should give it back. However, it was made with the best intentions and is at least a step away from needless re-makes and endless sequels. This is not one to watch, but maybe their next effort will be.
Chris Regan
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