There seem to be two types of horror films made these days: gross-out, gore-filled torture fests or middlebrow, completely predictable supernatural thrillers. Boogeyman is, as you might infer from the title, part of the latter group. And as such, it’s basically just more stupid mainstream studio bullshit PG-13 horror. This is the same film as about ten other films of recent vintage (Amityville Horror or Hide and Seek, say) and as such I guess it’s not better or worse. But really, these paint-by-number horror films are just annoying. First you have the initial scare. Then comes the introduction of our hero and his life (or love interest or non-horror related problem). Then you have some sort of rising action that ratchets up the tension through some random but foreboding event (here the accidental killing of a crow, which, fyi, couldn’t really have been a crow since killing crows are illegal in the United States). Tthen the hero confronts and attempts to deal with the thing he’s been avoiding, etc.
The initial scare is provided by the hero’s father’s abduction by some unseen closet monster. This is neither unexpected nor scary and mostly just made me wonder if it wouldn’t have been more interesting to see what happens to the father once he’s sucked into that closet as opposed to watching the emotionally stunted son come to terms with his abandonment.
And anyway, what is the film saying when this guy who, if he were a real person would basically be a lunatic for being afraid of the dark as a thirty-year-old is proved to be right to be afraid? Are we supposed to be afraid of the dark? Are we supposed to think that all mentally ill people are really just seeing the world the way it really is and we are the ones who are crazy? I don’t think it’s trying to say either of those things but that seems to be the only logical conclusion.
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