Recently it seems that the horror film has really made a comeback. For a few years there the well had run a bit dry, but lately there has been a number of horror remakes (not my favorite) and a few original attempts at frightening us. Some come in the form of Asian horror, remakes of Asian horror or childhood fears come to life (or would that be death?). Horror films can be a pretty mixed bag when it comes to quality and while there have been a number of them that have worked fairly well, a greater portion of them have started out with e great premise, only to fall apart in the final moments. One of the more recent of these that had fallen prey to the “final moment fall apart” is “Boogeyman.” I missed it in theatres, but when the DVD came out, my wife and I decided to wait until a dark and stormy night to watch it. She was already nervous because of the premise, which involved a young man’s having to face the thing in the closet (and sometimes under your bed) that he believes took his father years before.

Most of the trailers looked pretty good, and gave us the impression that the mood of the film would be pretty creepy. In this case, the trailers did not lie. “Boogeyman” started with a bang, using the tried and true formula of showing us the protagonist’s first experience with the creature. The whole scene was very well shot, and decidedly scary. It brought back all the childhood memories of me wrapping myself up in blankets in order to ward off the creatures hiding in my room. I remember shadows looking like monsters, and in the case of this film, that fear becomes quite the reality.

As the film progressed, I was surprised to find that it became even scarier, mostly for the fact that it kept turning corners that we didn’t expect. The story started going off in really creative directions, but they still made sense. There was enough suspense to fill three movies. We were glued to the screen all the way up until the final 10 minutes. Then, “Boogeyman” made the same mistake that too many horror films lately have made, and that is in the decision to create a totally CG creature. You see, up until those final moments we only caught glimpses of the ‘boogeyman.’ But when we see finally see him in full, he is a fully CG created animation. That pulled me right out of the fear I was feeling for the rest of the film.

Now to be fair, I’m not saying that the CGI was bad. As a matter of fact it was pretty well rendered, but it just didn’t measure up to what my imagination had created earlier in the film. And almost anytime you have a CG character that is created a cleanly as this one was, it looks too much like the people are fighting a cartoon. I hate when this happens, especially when the rest of the movie was so darn good.

The new DVD out this week includes a fair amount of extra features, mostly surrounding the visual effects. There are also some deleted scenes, which include an alternate ending. Thankfully, despite its visual weaknesses, I’m glad they changed it to the ending that was used. This alternate ending was extremely weak, but interesting enough to check out. The scene was partially unfinished, so you get to see where some of the matte work was done.

I would still recommend “Boogeyman”, especially if you choose to watch it late at night, but just be prepared for a less that satisfying ending.

Directed by: Stephen Kay
Starring: Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Sky McCole Bartusak, Lucy Lawless
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Alternate Ending, Multi-part “Making of” Featurette, Visual Effects Progressions, Animatics
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 5/31/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For Intense Sequences of Horror and Terror / Violence and Some Partial Nudity)
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We'll give Boogey Man a B-.