The Boogeyman

Of all the Stephen King adaptations…The Boogeyman is…certainly one of them.

All kidding aside, this 2023 effort is decidedly in the middle of the pack – that pack being, the capable, if unspectacular, It, and the workmanlike re-imagining of Pet Sematary (the polar extremes are, the exemplary Gerald’s Game, The Shining, and The Mist, counterbalanced by the execrable The Children of the Corn (2022), Carrie (2013), and In the Tall Grass).

Will Harper (Mindy Project’s Chris Messina) is a psychotherapist who runs an office out of his home. He gets a visit from a disturbed interloper, Lester Billings, who doesn’t have an appointment. As an aside, who in horror named Lester is socially well-adjusted? There’s awkward Lester from Scarecrow, crazy Lester from Slaughterhouse, chainsaw specialist/cannibal Lester from Lucio Fulci’s Touch of Death, psycho Lester from The Girl with No Name…And of course, outside the genre there’s Lester from American Beauty…

Anyway, Lester has a creepy wild-eyed disclosure for the doc: he feels that his kids have been killed by some strange entity. Dr. Harper goes to call the police (so much for doctor/almost-patient confidentiality), but it’s too late: attending officers, and the Doc’s daughter, Sadie, find Lester swinging to and fro.

Sadie takes things hard, understandably, and it is cold comfort to have a grief counsellor who’s also your pops.

And it’s inside the high school, rather than the Billings family home – a derelict crack den – that The Boogeyman comes alive: the cast of spirited young characters, Sadie’s pals, and their high school hall interactions especially post-trauma are on-point, a difficult thing to do.

It’s funny, it’s the day-to-day relationships that are actually just as, or perhaps more compelling, than the supernatural horror elements of The Boogeyman. Perhaps this would’ve made for a better family drama about a girl experiencing grief and how the dynamics of friendship are altered.

The Boogeyman looks great: director Rob Savage also did the polarizing Dashcam and the Zoom meeting horror, Host. And now he’s directed the two second-best horrors with “Host” and “Boogeyman” in their names (of course, there’s the K-horror, plus the definite article, and the other, by Ulli Lommel).

*** (out of 5)

Popcorn

The 90s were not kind to horror.

It it this reviewer’s contention that other than maybe Candyman, no other 90s horror would crack the Top 10 if it were released in the 70s, 80s, 2000s 2010s, etc. This premise, however, holds only if you don’t consider Silence of the Lambs a horror film, obviously a strong effort but which more of a melange of police procedural and thriller (kinda like Se7en). It’s probably the same argument you could have about Deliverance – that it is more action adventure than horror.

Popcorn, however, stands head and shoulders above a sea of self-referential meta horrors (and of course, odious 90s frosted tip hairstyles). And with apologies to stone cold classic, Halloween, it might be more of a fun viewing choice for October 31.

LA cinema studies students put on a film festival. And a William Castle-esque figure gives them a pep talk, and brings along a treasure trove of theatre props in several suitcases.

The team sets up shop in a cinema that has a couple of weeks of life left before it has a date with a wrecking ball. And they set out to put on the most entertaining show they can for their fellow students, with assistance from their prof, played by Tony Roberts (The Taking of Pelham, 1 2 3, Serpico, Annie Hall).

The monkey wrench in their plans comes from a figure lurking in the shadows…a masked master of disguise with a wildly cinematic backstory.

The characters are spirited and fun, the effects, super fun as well, as are the references to cheesy atomic bug movies from the 60s. The backstory and narrative, wonderful.

Popcorn calls to mind the cinema/theatre-related horrors likes of New Year’s Evil, Demons, Opera, Stagefright, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Blob, The Phantom of the Opera (as a meta callback, the star of the 89 film, Jill Schoelen, is the compelling star here as cinema student, Maggie) and of course, William Castle’s The Tingler.

**** (out of 5)

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