A modest but good example of its subgenre ...
BOOGEYMAN combines the unapologetically supernatural ambience of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET with the blessed silence of HALLOWEEN's Shape for pleasingly creepy results. Writers Eric Kripke and Juliet Snowden & Stiles White, working from Kripke's story, have come up with a format that allows a lot of showing-not-telling. This is one of the rare American horror films that is straightforward enough not to need a lot of exposition and smart enough to therefore sidestep it.
A prologue (which it pays to remember in detail) shows how little Tim Jensen learned the hard way that his scoffing dad is dead wrong about the Boogeyman being "just a story."
At age 23, Tim (Barry Watson) is understandably closet-phobic his astutely designed loft has no concealed spaces, not even a cupboard or a refrigerator but otherwise is mostly convinced that his father really abandoned the family and his subconscious played tricks on him. However, when his premonition of his mother's death comes true, Tim starts to fall apart. A well-meaning psychologist tells Tim it will do him good to spend a night in the old house ...
Since we know from the storybook nightmare of the well-done opening sequence that we are indeed in the realm of things that go bump, BOOGEYMAN doesn't waste our time with teasing us about Tim's state of mind. Refreshingly, apart from Tim's decision to brave the house in the first place, he otherwise behaves in an uncommonly sensible manner for a horror movie protagonist this is a case where the enemy really is the monster, not personal stupidity, which all by itself would be reason to recommend this film. Director Stephen T. Kay paces his scares with variety, avoiding have that boo!-by-the-numbers feel that plagues some entries in the genre. He also gets good work from the cast, especially Watson, who finds numerous ways to play dread without becoming repetitive. Lucy Lawless has a cameo as his mother.
The writers have devised a cleverly organic origin for their Boogeyman, which is given to us visually rather than verbally. BOOGEYMAN adds perhaps one flourish too many with a late introduction of a character that raises a few questions. However, it is mostly economical and direct, a return to the what-ifs of childhood terrors that strikes a decent balance between coherence and magical horror.
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