Boogeyman

Year: 2005 Rating: PG-13 Overall Evaluation: 7.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 6.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 9.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of horror and terror/violence, and some partial nudity. The nudity unnecessary but is not frontal and not really an issue. Surprisingly little gore - some minor flash stuff, but nothing lingering. Not even really that violent. Kudos for making a freaky film without resorting to gore. Unfortunately it does resort to a lot of cheap shocks to keep the mood, but this is more of an issue of art than style as considered here.

Story

A man in his 20's is tormented by an incident from his childhood wherein a thing from his closet comes to him in the night and eventually takes his father into the closet - never to return. From this point on he is justifiably terrified of dark, enclosed, places (to the point of removing all cupboard doors from his VERY well lit, single-room apartment (minus closets of course). He has been told that this experience was simply the coping mechanism of an 8 year old and decides to spend a night in the house to face his fears. The basic story is good although there are some plot holes and rather useless sub storylines that do nothing for it. (I was also not very impressed by the actual portrayal of the boogeyman at the end but that is more an artistic problem.)

[SPOILER WARNING!]

It turns out that the boogeyman is very real and has been stalking this neighborhood for some time. The hero decides to face the thing in order to save his loved ones from being taken as well. He does so and triumphs over the boogeyman when he refuses to give in to his fear.

Suppositions

Granting the existence of boogeymen for the sake of the genre the world view here is very positive albeit non-Christian (it is not, however, anti-christian).

Significance

This is a positive movie actually. The basic message is that our fear gives power to the enemy and we must take it back by facing our fear, especially in order to save others.