BOOGEYMAN is a Silly But Misunderstood Nightmare

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ABOUT THE SHOW:
This show celebrates Ryan's love for film, games, art and entertainment through personal retrospective analysis that aims to explore what made them so good.

MUSIC:
Tragic Story by Myuu
Skeleton Dance by Myuu
Game Over by Magic In The Other
The Six Realms by I Think I Can Help You
A Hand In The Dark by Underbelly & Ty Mayer
Voices in My Head by Quincas Moreira
Light Years Away by Doug Maxwell

TIME STAMPS:
00:00 - The Story of Boogeyman (2005)
06:08 - The Characters & Metaphor
12:25 - The Creature Reveal (Spoilers)

[RyanHollinger]

*Know a "bad" movie that needs a re-evaluation? Let me know in the comments!*

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[freedom]

Boogey Man, Darkness Falls, Dead Silence, all fall in the "great concept, questionable execution" category for me

[BlackReshiram]

I find the gimmick with the creature taking on the forms of stuff around the victim's home and destroying those will hurt the creature like horcruxes to be really clever

[duser]

"The boggey man can teleport between closets..."
Literally Monster's Inc except horror and told through the eyes of children traumatized by random furry creatures coming out of their closets.

[Cuestar]

Idk if it was just because I was a kid, but this movie really got to me. Great analysis! Glad to see Boogeyman get some coverage

[Droemar]

Stephen King's short story about The Boogeyman is definitely one of his scariest stories in my book. It's told from the perspective of a guy (who is kind of a jerk) in denial that a supernatural, monstrous being has murdered his children. It focuses more on adult fear than child fear, which is probably what makes the story work, but it does specifically invoke that the kids know exactly what's hunting them, and that the man's inability to admit the Boogeyman is real is his fatal flaw. He can't tap into the child-like fear that would have ultimately saved his children. It's also NOT "monster as metaphor" (for the most part, anyway) but more like "the world is full of random, terrible things that will target you" and in this case it happens to be the Boogeyman.
I'd love to see the story adapted (I think it got a small one in an anthology series?) as a full-length feature. If Hereditary got the fear of "death of a child" right, imagine how horrific it could be for three of them?

[dahakaguardianofthetimelin]

I think that a movie that tackles the idea of how diverse the myth of the Boogeyman can be and features a monster that appears differently to different people and functions under different rules, kills in different ways and has different weaknesses, depending on who interacts with it would be fun. Maybe one person grew up thinking that the Boogeyman lived under the bed and dragged people into a shadowy dimension from under the bed with its long arms but it couldn't grab you if no part of your body touched the ground, maybe another character grew up thinking that the Boogeyman can't find them under their sheets, making them effectively invisible as well as unable to see an otherwise unstoppable monster that's so terrifying that the sight of it would drive that person mad enough to gouge their own eyes out and die screaming bloody murder. There are so many fun and interesting ideas such a story could explore if it didn't go for the safest and the most generic option

[thefanwithoutaface]

Not gonna lie a horror movie about the Literal Boogeyman did actually sound intriguing to me and it would've been cool to see it explored.

[omiliag]

It’s a weird and messy film. When i was a kid it scared me. Then when i revisited it as a more cynically snobbish teenager i only perceived it as rubbish with horrible cgi and nothing else. Now after revisiting it i now thing it’s an interesting idea with some neat things going for it, terribly executed and i think it’s a funny thing that the cinematography at times looks like a Marilyn Manson music video

[andrwarrior]

seeing footage from this movie has opened up memories of yet another creature-from-the-dark film called They (2002). The similarities are palpable, except that the blank canvas protagonist is a woman. What I distinctly remember from this film is the twist ending, which does a much better job of rolling off the beaten path into supernatural territory. If you have the mental to survive yet another early 2000's horror trope movie, you might find it enjoyable in its own right. It's also quite difficult to find, from my limited attempts at researching it.

[mooseraps]

This movie scared me so much as a kid. I couldn’t even look at the vhs cover for it lol.

[wstine]

I found this movie can be quite interesting. I feel like he was going back to his childhood home to face his fears in order to become a adult. Plus, any chance to see Lucy Lawless on the screen is great.

[TempehLiberation]

I'm an A24 fanboy, but you're spot on with the whole "elevated horror" point. Great video as always Ryan! I'll have to rewatch this one now lol.

[samlipton]

Oh man, I remember watching this with my parents while I was in middle school and I found it terrifying. I also remember watching White Noise in middle school and being terrified! I was the type of kid to change the channel when a commercial for a scary movie came on lol

[CamReeds]

this era of "scary" movies are so cozy to me now. i can watch this darkness falls and the fog as a fun triple feature like house on haunted hill, the haunting and ghost ship

[TheQuinofhearts]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the alternate ending where it's revealed that the boogeyman was just an alternate identity and he was the one who killed those around him.

[mikeosredkar]

I appreciate the call-outs against "elevated horror." I only recently became aware that's a thing people are calling horror movies that they don't want to have to defend liking, since saying you like a horror movie is apparently a faux pas.

[sebastianevangelista]

The thing about "elevated horror" is that it has the same problem as Oscar bait films, in that it's often dull, empty, and more concerned about ideas than plot. No sensible person wants their horror to be obnoxious, of course, but that doesn't mean that we should fixate on mood and atmosphere to the point of nothing happening seeing as that's obviously boring.

[TheGreatSpaceHobo]

I hope you dont stop doing these for to long man. I was so big into these cheesy early 2000's horror movies and I loved them, you're like the only guy who gives not totally negative reveiws and just talks about movies I haven't seen in years. Always makes me smile when you cover another one!

[ferdinandpurczeld]

My mind was blown at the revelation that the boogeyman can teleport when I was a kid. I was a huge fan of superpowers like teleportation at the time, so it immediately made it a really good movie for me.