DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 89 minutes, deleted scenes, alternate ending, two part Making Of featurette, Animatics, Visual Effects Progressions, Previews

STUDIO: SPHE/Screen Gems/Ghost House

RELEASE DATE: 5-31-2005

ANALYSIS: BOOGEYMAN has a great premise and trailer. However, the movie just falls apart by the end. Tim (Barry Watson) witnessed the Boogeyman take away his father at the age of eight. 16 years later, people have convinced him that the Boogeyman doesn't exist until one Thanksgiving weekend. He goes to spend the week with his foxy blond girlfriend (who has a face that makes me think of Alfac) and meet her parents. He gets a call from his uncle that his mom (Lucy Lawless) has died at the psychiatric hospital where she was at. Tim quickly goes to his childhood home and spend a night there. Nothing is simple since the Boogeyman is waiting for him while taking other kids to pass the time. Tim bumps into Kate (Emily Deschanel), an old friend, that is heading quickly to spinsterhood and probably wouldn't mind getting between the sheets with him (and have his babies). Soon Tim has to face the Boogeyman and that's pretty much the entire plot of the movie unless you count all of Tim's shifting through time and space from place to place as he tries to find the Boogeyman that may or may not exist (of course, he does).

Many characters are just stereotypes with no real development behind them. The only characters that have something behind them are Tim, Franny (the little girl that tries to help Tim), and Kate. The direction is smart with some very cool camera angles. The CGI is just plain bad. The script and direction do create a mood, but BOOGEYMAN could have benefited more from a better ending. It almost makes me wish the Boogeyman could have taken that ending and hit it somewhere.

BOOGEYMAN is all flash and no substance.

VIDEO-

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)

Colors and blacks are good. Image detail is great. A little grain does show.

AUDIO-

Languages: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 DD

Subtitles: English, French, Chinese

Dialogue is clear. Sounds and music add to the general atmosphere.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Several deleted scenes and an alternate ending are included. The deleted scenes are shown in reverse order (the first scene takes place near the end of the movie and the last near the beginning). Some of these cut scenes add more light to the plot. The Visual Effects Progressions shows finished scenes and the Boogeyman acting against green screen. The Animatics are kinda like a poor man's animatics with the storyboards being show to sound from the movie and little time coded clips from the movie inserted at various points.

That brings me to the two part Making Of BOOGEYMAN featurette. It is thirty five minutes of badly put together promotional fluff hyping how good BOOGEYMAN is.

PREVIEWS-

English 5.1 DD: THE CAVE, THE FORGOTTEN, LORDS OF DOGTOWN, and ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID.

English 2.0 Dolby Surround: STEALTH, D.E.B.S., GUESS WHO, MAN OF THE HOUSE

No BOOGEYMAN trailer.

FINAL ANALYSIS: BOOGEYMAN is a big disappointment that amounts to nothing. Rent at your own risk.

this DVD Review is (c)5-21-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia