Story: Tim (Barry Watson) has always had an intense fear of the Boogeyman, with his childhood memories filled with unease and dread, always asking his father to check to make sure he was safe. While it is common for parents to check under the bed or in a closet for “monsters,” Tim’s father never returned from his safety check. Tim has always been sure it was the Boogeyman who took his father, but of course, no one really believes his claims. As an adult, Tim has more or less convinced himself his father just took off, but his past returns when his mother dies. Now Tim is going back to his childhood house to pay his respects, but is an old evil just waiting to welcome him home?

Entertainment Value: Boogeyman is not one that won me over, as the pace is glacial at times and in general, very little of interest happens here. The narrative is predictable, but does what it needs to do, though it never pulls out any creative or unexpected twists or turns. So there is some potential here, but it is never drawn out, as the movie is content to be slow and drawn out. This leads to some dull stretches and the movie takes almost half an hour to pick up some steam, but even then, Boogeyman is unable to muster much momentum. I could better deal with the slow pace if there was atmosphere and slow burn tension, but again, the film doesn’t do much on those fronts. I didn’t find this to be scary whatsoever and while there are a couple interesting scenes, that’s about all Boogeyman can conjure up here. In the end, I found this to be a slow, unsatisfying horror movie with very little horror, so I can’t recommend this one.

This movie has a solid cast involved, but the material is so thin, no one is given much to do and no one seems all that interested in being present. Barry Watson has the lead and while he has turned in some good work in other pictures, here he seems to just skate by without much enthusiasm. I can understand his apathy, given the script and all that, but perhaps a few tuned up turns could have made this more tolerable. Watson isn’t bad, but seems half present and doesn’t do much to punch up the material, just doing the bare minimum, in a sense. I don’t know if a more interested or more game performer could have saved Boogeyman, but it couldn’t have hurt. The cast also includes Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, and Lucy Lawless.

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