The Collegian

Issue date: 2/10/05 Section: No Limits

A close up of Barry Watson, eyes wide open in fear, with a small glimpse of "something" reflected in his eyes.

Since when, exactly, did winter become the season for bad horror flicks? The time between New Years and Oscar night has been the annual dumping season for bad movie releases, but why is it that this year they're all horror flicks? So far, we've seen "Hide and Seek," "White Noise," and "Alone in the Dark," and they were all pretty bad.

But to be fair, Boogeyman wasn't as bad as those, it was worse.

In Boogeyman, Barry Watson plays Tim, a young man, who, 15 years ago, witnessed his father disappear into his bedroom closet by an ominous force, taken to Hell, probably. Then as an adult, Tim is understandably traumatized, still scared senseless of closets, doors and dark areas underneath beds.

Upon the recommendation of his childhood psychologist, Tim reluctantly returns to his now-vacant childhood home to spend the night. He is assured that if he makes it through the night at the house alone, he will be freed of his past fears and demons: noticeably similar to 2003's "Darkness Falls."

The movie didn't really follow a solid plot after getting to the house. It sort of drifted from Tim's sometimes ghastly flashbacks of his childhood, to getting lost in the portals of his closest.

I often wondered if they ran out of money during production due to the way things resulted in the movie.

In most horror flicks, you would expect there to be moments where there's a long silence, then something jumps out with a loud noise. Well, director Stephen T. Kay, uses this technique in just about every scene. There were so many cheap and often very predictable scares, it was pathetic.

The movie also had apparent holes in the plot, mostly due to the countless scenes of Tim staring into the dark corridors of his house. I just couldn't get into the movie, chiefly from it overlapping into the Super Bowl.

The monster was nicely computer-generated, though. But it didn't really suit "Boogeyman's" image, meaning that boogeymen don't look like flying mummies.

The film recycled many old concepts that past horror flicks encompassed. Creaky floor boards, dilapidated old houses, and flickering lights are all too common in the genre. Just like all the other bad movies that recently came out, "Boogeyman" was nicely made, but lacked key elements, such as character development.

So if you're not up for watching 90 minutes of closet doors, save your money.

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