The Boogey Man

Ulli Lommel is an eccentric who loves mysteriousness and has crazy ideas. And that is a golden combination in the horror genre. His The Boogeyman is a mysterious, slow, heavily atmospheric horror movie that appropriates the theme of Carpenter’s Halloween and wraps it up in Dario Argento’s psychedelia. It’s as if the director read between the lines, often showing us what is not shown elsewhere and conversely leaving out the clichéd literalness that would really put the brakes on the narrative. This is a bizarre movie during which you won’t feel fearful or anxious. You will either stare at it deliriously with your mouth open or you will be bored to death by it. Though it was cheaply made, it is extraordinarily remarkable in terms of its directing, screenwriting, imagery and music. In these parameters, The Boogeyman is similar to Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. I’m giving this four stars as a bit of a guilty pleasure. (28/10/2003)

This is a very curious example of a particular type of horror movie, in which the maker’s inventive vision is thrashed and beaten by bad directing and screenwriting incompetence. With The Boogeyman, Ulli Lommel combines a lot of interesting ideas and visual treats (especially in the ostentatious finále, with the really iconic playing around with the reflections in the fragments of the mirror). However, despite that, he puts it all together in such a questionable and haphazard way, that it all seemed so fragmented and incoherent. I would probably end up rating this as a terrible movie based on an excellent vision, which at times breaks its own established rules, however, there are still some quite jaw-dropping moments for the audience. In any case, Tim Krog's distinctive electronic music puts the movie on a higher level than it probably deserves! (05/09/2019)