Boogeyman really isn't all that bad. It's an OK horror movie which provides a few scares and thrills. The problem is it should have been so much better. After all the premise-what is it that little children are scared of at night which could come out of the cupboard-is a good one,not totally original,but not too familiar either.
After a genuinely scary opening,we have our usual setting up of plot and build up for a while,than the scares start again. There is one truly effective 'jump'involving one,than a whole room full of,ghost children.There has been a lot of criticism of the way films like this and The Grudge use lots of sudden shocks and images but it works for me! However,after this great scene,the film just had nowhere to go. The hero must confront his fear,and that's it. The filmmakers attempt to atone for this by having it's characters constantly passing from one place to another in a kind of teleportation but it becomes overused and laughable. The weak climax is not scary and considerably weakened by MTV-style directing so you can't see whats always going on {a bugbear of much recent cinema}. Still,at least the monster is only shown briefly,making it more effective.
You could do probably do worse than see Boogeyman,it holds the attention for the first half at least and it's a good one for teenagers who want to be scared a bit but not actually disturbed. However,after it's over you may just want to cry "is that it?". It's very annoying when a film starts off good and promises a lot but fails to deliver.
