BOOGEYMAN

Since Tim saw his father sucked into the wardrobe of his room by the Boogeyman, he can no longer stay calm in the dark and doesn't have the courage to approach a wardrobe. Fifteen years after the incident, Tim receives a phone call from his uncle informing him of his mother's death. The young man then returns to his hometown for the funeral and decides to spend a night in the house where he lived as a child, with the intention of facing his fears. Naturally, the Boogeyman won't be long in showing up. Second productive endeavor for the acclaimed Sam Raimi/Robert Tapet company, who had debuted a few months earlier with the Hollywood remake of "The Grudge". This "Boogeyman" is born on the wave of films focused on the childhood fear of the dark, which we had recently talked about the Iberian "Darkness", the fun "Al calare delle tenebre" and the unsettling "They". As in these films, in "Boogeyman" the dark is the most dangerous element and children's rooms are the most insidious place in the house. Apparently harmless during the day, when night falls, children's bedrooms turn into another world, populated by shadows and sinister creaks. Also in this film is the infamous introduction that shows us the traumatic childhood and nighttime experience that the young protagonist suffered and, although it immediately fills the viewer with an annoying sense of déjà vu, it is perhaps the most successful part of the entire film. Indeed, this "Boogeyman" is a total disappointment due to the lack of originality, the absence of rhythm and a rushed and botched ending. The similarities with the previously mentioned films are too evident to go unnoticed (the protagonist who behaves like a madman and is considered as such by everyone - already seen in "Al calare delle tenebre" and "They" - ; the unsettling presences that suddenly appear to make the viewer jump - present in a similar way in "Darkness" - and so on); moreover, the film seems incredibly disjointed and without rhythm for the first hour, filled only with frequent "buses" inserted probably to prevent the viewer from falling asleep. But the bitter disappointment concerns above all the last half hour, in which the appearance of the Boogeyman (poorly created digitally) is revealed and the battle between the protagonist and his monster takes place, with a flurry of special effects particularly out of place. So what could save this disastrous film from oblivion? Certainly not the anonymous direction of Stephen Kay (who had already directed the lackluster "La vendetta di Carter" with Sylvester Stallone and some episodes of the TV series "The Shield") and not even the unoriginal screenplay by Eric Kripke (creator of the TV series "Supernatural"). Perhaps one can just appreciate the good acting performance of Barry Watson (seen in "Killing Mrs. Tingle" and in the TV series "Settimo cielo"), on whose shoulders the entire film rests; the sets, including especially the suggestive Gothic-style house where much of the film takes place; and the rather pleasant idea of showing wardrobes as communicating doors, through which characters can move from one space to another without much effort, a bit like it happened in the nice Pixar cartoon "Monster & Co.". But it is really too little to be able to recommend this film. One can only hope that Raimi's production company, "Ghost house", does not continue on this path.