Boogeyman -- 2005 -- PG-13

This is one of those movies that I thought looked good as a trailer, and then I heard all kinds of horrible things about. Being the curiou cat that I am, that just drew me loser to watching it, but I had to get through the slew of 2006 films I lined up before getting this far. How do I feel after watching it? Well, it's not as bad as all that.

We get a guy who saw his father sucked into his closet as a kid by a creature who we can only assume is the Boogeyman. It was always accepted from this time forward that his father just left, but we know better, and the guy is haunted by slightly opened doors and shadows wherever he goes. He goes to his girlfriend's for Thankgiving where he is haunted by a final view of his mother right before she dies, and he is drawn back to his hometown where all this happened.

After visiting the psyche ward where he pretty much grew up (yeah, you heard me right), the psychiatrist there tells him the best thing to do is spend a night in that house since this Boogeyman thing is all in his head, and that's the best way to get past it. So, following the funeral for mom, he goes along with this and heads to the house where his father was sucked into the closet. So begins the horror of his weekend in a ride that delivers a lot of suspense and some really bizarre happenings.

The weakest point of this narrative is the characters. We get a fairly good sense of our lead, but no sense of his connection with everyone else. He has a girlfriend, but her presence is rare and their relationship doesn't have much to it. There's a girl who lives next door to his childhood house, but we get very little sense of who she is either. The focus here is on the guy, his relationship with the Boogeyman, and his quest to try and defeat the man.

The suspense side is actually fairly well done. Anyone with a fear of closets might want to steer clear because it does a decent job of making the question of these closets stand out. We don't know in many events whether what happened in the closets really happened or is something in his head. In fact, we begin to doubt whether there is a Boogeyman at all, or whether this is all in his head. Which way do we go? Well, that's part of the fun.

Boogeyman is not a film with a lot of substance, but like The Grudge, it does deliver a good amount of suspense and ominous presence to keep you guessing. The film's ending and final showdown doesn't disappoint and is the warped "who knows?" kind of stuff I really enjoy. So when you sit down to this one, just enjoy the ride, and don't try to read to much into it.