Boogeyman (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Crew/Characters/Cast Deleted Scenes Featurette-Visual Effects Storyboards Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Evolution Of The Horror Film
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	85:12 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Stephen T. Kay
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Barry Watson Emily Deschanel Skye McCole Bartusiak Tory Mussett Andrew Glover Lucy Lawless Charles Mesure Philip Gordon Aaron Murphy Jennifer Rucker Scott Wills Michael Saccente Louise Wallace
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Joseph LoDuca

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Boogeyman promises much with its riveting opening sequence, but sadly the film is weighed down with far more style than substance. Or perhaps the main character's disinterest in his gorgeous girlfriend and his fear of being in a closet is a grand analogy, and this film has far more depth than I thought? In any case, Boogeyman is another example of a growing genre in Hollywood - the PG-13 Horror film. The movie uncomfortably straddles the genres of horror and drama, and ends up being an entertaining, but ultimately disappointing horror film.

    The concept of a 'Boogeyman' as we know it has existed in popular mythology for over three hundred years. The Boogeyman theme has made it to the big screen a number of times, including in the recent Jeepers Creepers and The Grudge.

    It is believed that the term "Boogeyman" was derived from "Bugisman". A Bugisman or Bugis was the name English sailors gave to pirates from South East Asia, who were well-known for kidnapping people. Sailors warned their children that if they were bad, the Bugisman would come at night and take them away.

    Traditionally in mythology, the Boogeyman is a ghost-like monster, and vague in appearance. He could change his shape at will, and could appear at night out of nowhere. He is often referred to in stories told by parents to scare children into behaving.

    Written by screenwriting newcomers Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, and produced by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert of The Evil Dead fame, Boogeyman tells the story of a young man, Tim (Barry Watson of 7th Heaven), who is desperately trying to come to terms with a childhood event which has traumatised him for life.

   In the riveting opening sequence, which is probably the best part of the whole film, we see Tim in bed as a boy. We see spooky shadows creep across his walls and ceiling, and even his toys seem to stare back at him with twisted and terrifying faces. His discarded gown, draped over a chair, seems to take the shape of a hooded figure . . .

    I enjoyed this passage of the film, because it took me back to my own childhood. At night my closet door would creak open, and I would stare into the inky blackness within, watching and waiting for the slightest movement. These irrational childhood fears of a dark room at night are something that I'm sure many people will identify with. Especially those, like me, who were stupid enough to watch Poltergeist as a child (I never looked under my bed at night again).

    However, Tim's fear of the dark takes a nasty turn when his father enters the room to comfort him. Tim's father is violently dragged, kicking and screaming, into Tim's closet where he disappears.

    The story then jumps forward about fifteen years and we see the result of this traumatising experience. As a young man, Tim suffers from crippling nightmares and an acute fear of closed-in spaces and the dark. While Tim believes that the Boogeyman came that night and took his father away, psychologists tell him that this belief is a result of a boy struggling to cope with the reality of his father walking out on his family (and presumably disappearing) when Tim was a young boy.

    No one, including Tim's glossy girlfriend, Jessica (Aussie babe Tory Mussett), seems to understand Tim's fears or pain. He is isolated, and thus emotionally distant and remote.

    Following the death of his estranged mother, Tim decides to return to his boyhood home, which has now degenerated into being a creepy, run-down house in the middle of nowhere. By sleeping there, and challenging his fears, Tim hopes to finally put an end to his terrifying hallucinations.

    Once at the house, however, Tim meets a strange little girl, Franny (Skye McCole Bartusiak), who seems to be providing him with clues for his paranormal showdown. Perhaps Tim didn't imagine the Boogeyman attack after all?

    Boogeyman is another example of a growing genre in Hollywood - the PG-13 Horror film. These movies tend to disappoint their audiences, as they are heavily marketed toward the teenage schlock-horror fan, but are rather light on the gore and horror.

    Director Stephen T. Kay does inject a lot of atmosphere and some artistic stylings into the film, but unfortunately there is far too much style and too little substance. For example, there are a lot of strange noises, interesting camera angles, creepy old houses, weird lenses, and plenty of long pauses with ever-looming close-ups of doorknobs, as Tim considers whether he should open the doors.

    However, although Boogeyman starts off well, and promises much, it ends up delivering very little. The mystery has very little depth, and soon the story starts to grind to a halt and Kay begins to rely too heavily on a series of cheap terror tactics and 'boo' scares. Indeed, at times I found the plot a little confusing, as it often went in different directions, all at the same time, without really leading the audience anywhere. In doing so, it squandered a potentially interesting plot about child abduction.

    Another plot element I found strange was Tim's continued disinterest in his gorgeous girlfriend, Jessica. Every time she tries to get close to him physically, he backs away.

    While the script attempted to be intelligent and deep, the characters and dialogue really needed a lot more work. Apart from Tim, the characters all tend to be rather one dimensional, and indeed, the characters all seem disconnected. Worst of all, the movie runs out of puff by the end, and I found it all rather anti-climactic.

    While Kay attempts to insert plenty of action, most of these scenes are of Tim running around the house - that is, when he's not moping or meditating in a state of shock or confusion.

Video

    The transfer is excellent.

    The film was originally screened theatrically in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but the DVD's transfer is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    While there are some intentionally softer scenes, overall the sharpness is very good, as can be seen with detail in the cracked windscreen at 23:59. This is often a very dark film, and fortunately the black level and shadow detail are excellent. For example, consider the shot of the interior of the farm barn at night at 37:06.

    The film appears to have extensively used digital grading, and digital colour correction, with a lot of day-for-night shooting. As a result, the movie has a very consistent approach to colour, and the transfer exhibits a rather limited, but well saturated palette. The skin tones are accurate.

    There are no problems with MPEG or film-to-video artefacts. This is a very recent print, and only few tiny film artefacts such as black or white marks appear throughout, but they were never distracting.

    Only English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are present, and they are accurate.

    This is a Dual Layer disc, with the layer change placed between chapters 10 and 11 at 57:04. The feature is divided into 16 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good, and very loud!

    Originally released theatrically with dts, SDDS, and Dolby Digital audio, there are only two audio options on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), and English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to Joseph Ludoca, and it is an effective orchestral score, helping set a mood of unease and tension.

    The film boasts an excellent sound design, and as one might expect of a recent big-budget horror film, the surround presence and activity is fantastic. The rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score and provide ambience throughout. With many of the scenes, especially those shot from Tim's POV, there are a number of directional effects, and panning between speakers. This approach really makes the film viewing experience more enveloping and involving.

    This DVD's LFE track is one of the most impressive I have ever heard. The subwoofer is used very effectively throughout, and the bass plummets to very low, very intense levels.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are a few extras, which unless stated otherwise, are all presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, with Dolby Digital stereo.

Menu

    A simple menu with audio.

Featurette-Crew/Characters/Cast (19:28)

    Key members of the cast and crew, such as the film's Producers, Director, and Actors discuss the characters and story.

Deleted Scenes

    Seven deleted scenes, including the film's original ending:

• Trying To Rescue Dad
• Tim Strapping Himself In Chair
• Owner Of The Backpack
• Bedroom Flashback and Dead Cat
• Park and Street Scene
• Photocopy Room and Jessica In Office
• Alternate Ending

Featurette-Visual Effects (4:17)

    I found this quite interesting. Four "visual effects progressions" are presented, which allow us to see the original principal photography being 'layered' with the SFX into the finished theatrical scene.

Storyboards

    A few scenes are storyboarded with animatics, including the alternate ending.

• Opening
• Missing Children
• Alternate Ending

Theatrical Trailer (2:16)

    The film's original theatrical trailer.

Featurette-Evolution Of The Horror Film (14:57)

    Producers Robert Tapert, who along with Sam Raimi produced Evil Dead 25 years ago, discuss how Boogeyman is perhaps more of a drama than a horror film.

    Boogeyman was released on DVD in Region 1 in May 2005.

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• Bonus Trailers: Guess Who, D.E.B.S., Man of the House, The Grudge, The Forgotten, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, The Cave, Lords of Dogtown, and Stealth
• French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
  

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• Nothing

    I would see the R1 and R4 as pretty even, and in terms of content can see no real reason to favour either version. That said, all things being even, I do prefer a PAL transfer, as opposed to the R1's inferior NTSC image.

     However, if you are a big fan of this film, then you might be interested in the R3 (Hong Kong) Two-Disc version, which boasts both English dts ES and English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio options. The dts audio is encoded at the whopping full bitrate of 1536 Kbps.

    Although Boogeyman starts out well, it soon becomes a simplistic horror film with delusions of dramatic grandeur. Sadly, it has far more style than substance.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very immersive.

    The extras are reasonable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall