The most terrifying nightmare of childhood is about to return!
Directed by Ulli Lommel.
Written by Ulli Lommel, Suzanna Love & David Herschel.
AKA
Spectre
Mirror (Chi vive in quello specchio?) (Mirror (Who lives in that mirror?))
The Bogey Man
Supernatural slasher The Boogey Man was one of the 72 films to be labelled a ‘video nasty’ back in the #1980s. It starts with two little kids spying on their mom (Gillian Gordon) and her lover (Howard Grant). The abusive lover, with mom looking on, ties the little boy, Willy (Jay Wright), to his bed and gags him. His sister, Lacey (Natasha Schiano), frees him with a knife she gets from the kitchen. Willy takes the knife to mom’s bedroom and stabs mom’s lover to death, Lacey watches this happen in a mirror.
Twenty years later, Lacey (now Suzanna Love) and Willy (now Nicholas Love); real-life brother and sister; live with their aunt and uncle on a farm. Lacey, is now married to Jake (Ron James) with a child, Kevin (Raymond Boyden). Willy hasn’t spoken since that night and Lacey is still deeply troubled.
Lacey and Jake go to see Dr. Warren (John Carradine) who tells Jake that Lacey needs to visit the house where they used to live, to remember it as it is, not as it was. While they’re away, Willy attacks a woman called Katy (Catherine Tambini) who comes onto him, he then proceeds to paint all the mirrors black.
At the old house, Lacey and Jake meet the family now living there, or at least the kids; Susan (Lucinda Ziesing), Jane (Jane Pratt) and Timmy (David Swim); the parents are away for the weekend. Lacey is looking ’round the house when she sees the image of mom’s lover in the same mirror in which she saw him die. She smashes the mirror to pieces with a chair. They take the mirror back to their uncle and aunt’s house and Jake pieces it back together to prove to Lacey that it’s an ordinary mirror (or maybe to avoid bad luck) but a piece is missing, left behind at the old house.
“BOOGEYMAN!”
I don’t want to give away the ‘nasty’ parts. This isn’t that gory a film really but it has a few memorable scenes. I really like the atmosphere of the film, added to nicely by the music of Tim Krog, and I enjoyed the story. I’d love to see it released on Blu-ray as I consider it a classic of the time and worthy of any horror collection. See it uncut (as always when watching these old classics).
Sequels? There’s Boogeyman II (1983) a.k.a. Revenge of the Bogey Man and Boogeyman 3 a.k.a. Return of the Boogeyman (1994). I have not seen either of these but I’ve read some pretty damning reviews, especially of the 1994 film. I’ve also read that both sequels reuse a great deal of footage from the original. I may try and track them down purely out of personal interest. There’s also a remake in development; The Boogeyman: Grail of Evil. That’ll be interesting if it ever surfaces. The Boogeyman (2013) produced by Sam Raimi is not a remake of The Boogey Man (1980), it is a separate film based on a Stephen King story.
Also stars Llewelyn Thomas as Father Reilly, Felicite Morgan as Aunt Helen, Bill Rayburn as Uncle Ernest, Katie Casey as Teenager, Ernest Meier as Teenager, Charles David Richards as Teenager and Claudia Porcelli as Teenager.
In my next review I’m going to look at controversial 80s ghost-rape classic The Entity. Till then…
Other ‘#video nasties‘ you might enjoy:
Lisa, Lisa (1977)
Night of the Demon (1980)
There Was a Little Girl (1981)
Nightmare in a Damaged Brain (1981)
Unhinged (1982)
