Review: 'Boogeyman' Can Still Make You Jump

'Boogeyman' (PG-13)(out of four)

It must say something about "Boogeyman" that I got more excited as it went along, more wrapped up in this preposterous little yarn and more eager for one of the main characters to take a deep breath, turn to the camera and say in complete horror, "It's the boogeyman!"

That never quite happened, but then again if it had, "Boogeyman" would have clearly downshifted into pure camp. As it plays now, this fun little diversion falls somewhere in between serious and humorous, between horror and comedy.

Realizing what so many other modern horror directors fail to grasp, director Stephen T. Kay ("Get Carter") gives us one hell of a punch in the stomach right away, during the film's brief prologue. And remember other recent failures, such as "Darkness," it is refreshing to see a film set out to spook us from the first second, rather than waste hours on buildups to scares that never quite materialize.

It is about Tim's (Barry Watson) childhood, as he looks around the room and sees scary images that, with the lights on, turn out to be nothing. His dad comes in, reassures him there's nothing to worry about, and checks out the closet to show him that there's "no such thing" as the boogeyman.

Turns out he might be wrong.

Then flash forward 15 years, and we meet up with Tim as a 20-something. As he visits the home of his girlfriend's (Emily Deschanel) parents, it becomes apparent that the film's opening scene was a major moment for young Tim. Turns out his father disappeared, his mother broke down, and Tim suffered a psychological meltdown that placed him in a psychiatric hospital.

Now he is terrified both of dark closets and for those close to him, afraid that the dangers of the dark will drag off yet another important person in his life.

This structure of the film is a noteworthy one because it gives the film a human backbone where most of today's scare-a-thons are simply special effects collages. In "Boogeyman," the story is as much about Tim's reactions as the things that jump at him from the sides of the screen, and his torment is really an inner, psychological one, as his fear of the night and inability to relate to anyone socially or romantically makes him almost tragic.

Now I've gone and made this sound far too serious. Make no mistake, this is a campy horror film, relishing in putting Tim into a stranger's bedroom, a motel and finally a haunted house, and then watching as creepy things do, well, creepy things. But because we realize that bad consequences are possible, and because we come to care about how things will work out, we're right there for the ride, however preposterous it gets.

Watson deserves some credit for this. Asked constantly to react to nothing, he keeps his straight face and us involved when, by all accounts, we should be laughing ourselves silly. Kay, for all the cheap tricks he uses in the final 15 minutes, has created a technical marvel, squeezing things into the frame to accentuate the film's claustrophobic nature and amplifying every possible ambient sound -- even peeling paint -- to place the audience in that haunted house in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately, a far more interesting, and almost sci-fi subplot that hints at Tim's delusional, and perhaps even dangerous psyche is ignored in a final sequence when bland and boring special effects finally triumph.

But up until that point, I was impressed at how Watson, Kay and producers Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man 2") and Rob Tapert were able to recreate that primal fear of dark closets, of strange rooms at night, and remind us of how limitless the boundaries of fear were when we were all youngsters with imaginations.

... even if we never get to hear a grown man scream "BOOGEYMAN!"

They do get a close a couple times ...