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Suzanna Love, Ron James, John Carradine, Nicholas Love, Michael Love ... see more see more... , Raymond Boyden , Felicite Morgan , Bill Rayburn , Llewelyn Thomas

Fassbinder protegee Ulli Lommel directed this moody, atmospheric but ultimately derivative horror film about a dark family secret and the broken mirror which releases that secret's malignant spirit. T... read more read more...he film's prologue opens in the 1960s, when a young boy conspires with his sister to murder their mother's cruel and abusive lover. Flash forward to the present, with both siblings scarred by the emotional demons of their past: the boy has remained mute since that fateful day, and his sister (Suzanna Love, aka Mrs. Lommel) is tormented by nightmares. If that weren't enough, a literal demon is released when the old mirror which paid witness to their deed is shattered, releasing their victim's enraged spirit to seek bloody revenge... and he's not too particular about who he takes it out on. Released on the coattails of Halloween, this film retains many elements of John Carpenter's seminal work (brooding piano/synthesizer score; 20-years-later supernatural revenge motif) and borrows heavily from The Exorcist for its demonic-possession climax, but retains none of those films' well-crafted suspense, choosing instead to rely on shock effects and shots of sharp objects plunging into throats, eyes, mouths and abdomens. Lommel's use of rich colors and inventive camera angles lends a suitably creepy mood, but a better script might have elevated this one to true cult-classic status. Followed by a tired sequel constructed mainly of reused scenes from its predecessor. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

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48% liked it

7,544 ratings

R, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: Ulli Lommel

Release Date: November 7, 1980

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Flixster Reviews (244)

  • animegirlaya
    September 16, 2010
    animegirlaya
    Well for this will be the last American or horror I review for a while because I would rather move onto something different something more like Akira Kurosawa films or really anything that I have seen that comes out of were I live. So the reason for me seeing this that Vamp Reill... read morey calls Ulli Lemmel the worst director ever but I had never seen a film by him so I decide to watch just a few but I only got throw 2 and a half of his movies there just terrible. So I watched The Zodiac killer, The raven, Zombie nation and the boogeyman so that?s what I am reviewing. Despite me thinking it was average I liked it more then the others and I don?t think I will be seeing another film by him anytime soon.

    So the film is all about a mirror and the starting scene was so brutal two kids are beaten by there mums boyfriend and it just get?s really disturbing from there. So one of them dies and the girl grows up to be successful women but her past keeps coming back to her. She keeps seeing herself get beaten and god knows what. So her husbent takes her to the house she grow up in to show her there?s nothing that can hurt you anymore but a really old mirror in her brothers room tells a different story. Sometime later something brakes out of the mirror and starts murdering people and that?s really much the whole films story.

    The film has really has a lot of murders of teenagers and people to teens are having a good time talking then the mirrors shard brakes off and some guy out of nowhere butchers them with a pitchfork. The story can be extremely confusing sometimes. The acting is really and one of the only great parts about this movie and also I have to say but the window scene really did scare me but that?s about it for frights. The film has like a ton of gore and violence that any horror fan would love and it looks really realistic for a movie like this. And this could have been a pretty solid horror movie but directed Ulli Lemmel directed this LOL.

    But that?s all I can really say about this film I really only recommended it to you if you love horror films. And also I am not going to write reviews for a while because I need to adapt my own way of writing them not just steal the way Jesse does it.

    Keiko?s score 42-100
  • drblood
    August 20, 2007
    drblood
    This is a weird mix of "Halloween", "The Exorcist" and even "The Amityville Horror". It was one of the original banned "Video Nasties" in the UK (where it was called "The Bogey Man") but it's such a badly edited mess that it's now hard to see why.
    It's still a bit creepy in plac... read morees but certainly not scary and the low-budget makes it all look very cheap and even more badly done.
    It's still better than the 2005 remake though.
    Don't even bother with the sequels!
  • John2223
    May 29, 2010
    John2223
    "The Boogeyman" is a peculiar little horror movie that mixed "Halloween", "Amityville Horror" and "The Exorcist". The plot was stupid, the acting terrible, illogical script, the cutting extremely bad, the pace is slow and feels dragged. The only positive element in the film are t... read morehe murder scenes.
    This is e bad and dull film that gained notoriety by being black listed in England as a video nasty otherwise it just had disappeared.
  • Doctor0Quinzel
    January 21, 2010
    Doctor0Quinzel
    Not being a horror film watcher I am not sure if this is standard, but this was really bad. Darth Vader's ghost attacking random people really doesn't make any sense.
  • kingmob6
    September 28, 2011
    kingmob6
    It's sad to see that Ulli Lommel never really had anything to recommend him as a director, being that this was an early effort from the man and it was every bit as terrible as his more modern stuff.

    There's a cute female lead, which is almost the only thing worth mentioning.

    R... read moreental for the curious? Maybe?
  • coryivy
    July 7, 2007
    coryivy
    If u like thrillers and suspense movies then watch the boogeyman. but if u get scared easy then stay away. lol
  • sexybunny071
    September 12, 2006
    sexybunny071
    this you have to watch it from beginning to end to understand it you cant miss one scene or will will not know what is going on

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Critic Reviews

Scott Weinberg
July 25, 2002
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com

Goofy old-school killer mirror schpiel.

February 4, 2005
Chicago Tribune

Click to read the article Full Review

Nell Minow
March 3, 2007
Nell Minow, Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

No review available.

Emanuel Levy
July 21, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Kit Bowen
March 7, 2005
Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com

Click to read the article Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

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Marjorie Baumgarten
March 10, 2003
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

Click to read the article Full Review

May 30, 2001
AV Club

No review available.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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