The Boogeyman (1980 film)
Encyclopedia
The Boogeyman is a 1980
horror film
directed by Ulli Lommel
. It was followed by Boogeyman 2, and Return of the Boogeyman
.
As an adult, Lacey is married with a young son and lives with her aunt and uncle on a farm. Willy also lives with them, but has not spoken a word since the night he killed his mother's lover.
Lacey is afraid that "something's going to happen" and has nightmares where she is tied to a bed and threatened with knives by an unseen person. Her husband takes her to a psychiatrist
to try to help her confront her fears, and they decide to visit both Lacey's mother and the house she grew up in. At the house, however, Lacey sees a reflection of her mother's lover coming towards her in a mirror
in the bedroom where he died, and smashes the mirror in a panic. Her husband takes the broken mirror with him in an attempt to repair it, but a piece is left behind which later glows red as the three children in the house are killed by an unseen force.
Willy is also having problems with mirrors - seeing his reflection in one causes him to nearly strangle a girl and so he paints all the mirrors in the house black. Later, pieces of a broken mirror in a bag at his feet cause a pitchfork
to levitate and nearly stab him.
Another shard from the broken mirror becomes stuck to Lacey's son's shoe, and when it reflects the sunlight onto a group of nearby teens they are also killed, including a couple who are killed when the boyfriend is stabbed through the back of the neck with the blade exiting through his mouth, while his girlfriend is then forced onto the knife.
A piece of the mirror becomes lodged over Lacey's eye and she becomes possessed by the evil spirit of her mother's lover. It is only through the actions of the family priest that the shard is removed and thrown into water, where it bursts into flames. The remainder of the mirror is thrown into a well, where the same thing happens.
The film ends with one last mirror shard, missed by Lacey and her husband, glowing red on the ground.
theatrically in the United States
by The Jerry Gross Organization beginning in November 1980. It was subsequently released on VHS
by Wizard Video
.
The film has been released on DVD
twice in the United States. The first release was in 1999 by Anchor Bay Entertainment
alongside Lommel's The Devonsville Terror
(1983). This version is currently out of print
. It was subsequently re-released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
in 2005 alongside Lommel's Return of the Boogeyman
(1994).
Some critics have said that director Lommel was inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween
when he made The Boogeyman, most notably because of the similarities in the musical score and the fact that the killer in both films is a silent man with his face obscured as to make him effectively featureless. In fact, the protagonist characters in Halloween specifically refer to that film's killer as being, in effect, a physical embodiment of the "boogeyman" legend.
The film also uses several apparent pieces of folklore
and superstition
regarding mirrors - as well as the belief that it is bad luck to break a mirror, the film also discusses the belief that breaking a mirror releases everything the mirror has ever 'seen' and that placing the pieces of a broken mirror into a bag and burying it will counteract the bad luck from breaking the mirror. Additionally, there is the belief that a mirror in a room where someone has died will show the dead person looking back over the shoulder of anyone looking into the mirror.
The Boogeyman was placed on the UK's DPP list
in 1984, but was later re-released on the Vipco label in 1992 in a cut form. In 2000 it was released uncut.
sequences from the first film.
Return of The Boogeyman (or Boogeyman 3) was released in 1994, which is largely constructed around numerous flashbacks to this film as well.
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Ulli Lommel
Ulli Lommel
Ulli Lommel , is a German actor and director, noted for his many horror films, and for his career as an actor on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films.-Career:...
. It was followed by Boogeyman 2, and Return of the Boogeyman
Return of the Boogeyman
Return of the Boogeyman is a 1994 horror film by American director Deland Nurse. It was released in the US by Sony Pictures.-Plot:...
.
Plot
As children, Willy and Lacey watch their mother with her lover and are punished for it. Willy is gagged and tied to a bed but Lacey frees him and he proceeds to stab the man to death.As an adult, Lacey is married with a young son and lives with her aunt and uncle on a farm. Willy also lives with them, but has not spoken a word since the night he killed his mother's lover.
Lacey is afraid that "something's going to happen" and has nightmares where she is tied to a bed and threatened with knives by an unseen person. Her husband takes her to a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
to try to help her confront her fears, and they decide to visit both Lacey's mother and the house she grew up in. At the house, however, Lacey sees a reflection of her mother's lover coming towards her in a mirror
Mirror
A mirror is an object that reflects light or sound in a way that preserves much of its original quality prior to its contact with the mirror. Some mirrors also filter out some wavelengths, while preserving other wavelengths in the reflection...
in the bedroom where he died, and smashes the mirror in a panic. Her husband takes the broken mirror with him in an attempt to repair it, but a piece is left behind which later glows red as the three children in the house are killed by an unseen force.
Willy is also having problems with mirrors - seeing his reflection in one causes him to nearly strangle a girl and so he paints all the mirrors in the house black. Later, pieces of a broken mirror in a bag at his feet cause a pitchfork
Pitchfork
A pitchfork is an agricultural tool with a long handle and long, thin, widely separated pointed tines used to lift and pitch loose material, such as hay, leaves, grapes, dung or other agricultural materials. Pitchforks typically have two or three tines...
to levitate and nearly stab him.
Another shard from the broken mirror becomes stuck to Lacey's son's shoe, and when it reflects the sunlight onto a group of nearby teens they are also killed, including a couple who are killed when the boyfriend is stabbed through the back of the neck with the blade exiting through his mouth, while his girlfriend is then forced onto the knife.
A piece of the mirror becomes lodged over Lacey's eye and she becomes possessed by the evil spirit of her mother's lover. It is only through the actions of the family priest that the shard is removed and thrown into water, where it bursts into flames. The remainder of the mirror is thrown into a well, where the same thing happens.
The film ends with one last mirror shard, missed by Lacey and her husband, glowing red on the ground.
Cast
- Suzanna LoveSuzanna LoveSuzanna Love is an American actress and heiress. She grew up in Manhattan and attended Vassar College. She was married to German film director Ulli Lommel and starred in several of his movies. She is a Standard Oil heiress.-Filmography:...
as Lacey - Ron James as Jake
- John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as Dr. Warren - Nicholas Love as Willy
- Raymond Boyden as Kevin
Release
The film was given a limited releaseLimited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
theatrically in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by The Jerry Gross Organization beginning in November 1980. It was subsequently released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
by Wizard Video
Wizard Video
Wizard Video was a motion picture distribution company created by B movie veteran Charles Band, who would later go on to found Full Moon Features. They were best known for their VHS releases of Zombie 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I Spit on Your Grave...
.
The film has been released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
twice in the United States. The first release was in 1999 by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
alongside Lommel's The Devonsville Terror
The Devonsville Terror
The Devonsville Terror is a 1983 film, directed by Ulli Lommel and starring Suzanna Love and Donald Pleasence.-Plot:Dr. Warley investigates a 300-year-old witch's curse in the New England town of Devonsville. Three liberated, assertive women move into town, which angers the bigoted, male-dominated...
(1983). This version is currently out of print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
. It was subsequently re-released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
in 2005 alongside Lommel's Return of the Boogeyman
Return of the Boogeyman
Return of the Boogeyman is a 1994 horror film by American director Deland Nurse. It was released in the US by Sony Pictures.-Plot:...
(1994).
Some critics have said that director Lommel was inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
when he made The Boogeyman, most notably because of the similarities in the musical score and the fact that the killer in both films is a silent man with his face obscured as to make him effectively featureless. In fact, the protagonist characters in Halloween specifically refer to that film's killer as being, in effect, a physical embodiment of the "boogeyman" legend.
The film also uses several apparent pieces of folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
regarding mirrors - as well as the belief that it is bad luck to break a mirror, the film also discusses the belief that breaking a mirror releases everything the mirror has ever 'seen' and that placing the pieces of a broken mirror into a bag and burying it will counteract the bad luck from breaking the mirror. Additionally, there is the belief that a mirror in a room where someone has died will show the dead person looking back over the shoulder of anyone looking into the mirror.
The Boogeyman was placed on the UK's DPP list
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
in 1984, but was later re-released on the Vipco label in 1992 in a cut form. In 2000 it was released uncut.
Sequels
A sequel, of sorts, was filmed in 1981, but unreleased until 1983. Directed by Bruce Starr and an uncredited Uli Lommel; written by Starr, Lommel and the original film's star, Suzanna Love, although the writing goes uncredited in the film. In The Boogeyman 2, Lacey is approached by a group of Hollywood phonies to make a movie based on her experiences. Lacey travels to Hollywood to the home of a film director (played by Uli Lommel himself) where she brings along the last surviving haunted mirror shard from the end of the first movie as proof to her horrifying experiences. One by one, the phonies are killed by the mirror spirit who possesses the body of the director's manservent. Boogeyman 2 is padded with many flashbackFlashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
sequences from the first film.
Return of The Boogeyman (or Boogeyman 3) was released in 1994, which is largely constructed around numerous flashbacks to this film as well.