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Boogeyman 2
R1 - America - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (20th December 2007). |
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The Film
 "Boogeyman 2", the debut film for both screenwriter Brian Sieve and director Jeff Betancourt, and doesn't have much to live up to. It's a direct-to-DVD sequel to the horrible "Boogeyman" (2005). While some might see its absence from theaters as a curse, I can look at such a movie with a hopeful eye. Once in a blue moon, a straight-to-video horror movie can be pretty gutsy (figuratively and literally), especially when it doesn't have to worry about MPAA ratings mucking up a theatrical run. So, is it terrible? Is it trashy/gory fun? Kind of. The plot is simple enough; Laura (Danielle Savre) and her brother Henry (Matt Cohen) witness their parents getting murdered when they are both young, and ten years later the two siblings spend time in therapy. Just when Henry is getting out of the asylum, Laura is checking herself in. People start to die, Laura blames the 'Boogeyman', she is mocked...more people die, and it ends. In many ways, "Boogeyman 2" is a by-the-numbers horror flick, full of many tired conventions. We have creaky houses and an old insane asylum. We got a sort of nice but sort of mean Goth girl, the anorexic mean "pretty" girl, the kind of cute nice boy with a shag, the kind of cute nerdy boy with the shag, and the kind of cute, mean for no reason boy with a shag. We have main character Laura playing the girl that no one believes in when she warns them of the titular villain. The standout performance of the movie however goes to Tobin Bell. He is the sort of actor I just enjoy watching; he's gifted in a way where I don't care what he's saying or how bad the script is, and he just has the ability to sell it. Unfortunately, despite being billed as one of the main actors of the film, Bell only appears in four scenes. Enjoy his performance while it lasts. Despite these drawbacks, "Boogeyman 2" is hardly worthless. Believe it or not, I found most of the characters to be believable. In spite of the paint-by-numbers aspect and story, the performances helped me through the movie. Another big plus was the blood and guts. I'm a gore hound, and I was pleased with some of the juicier kills in the movie. There are intestines, hearts, more intestines, and well, you'll just have to see for yourself. Even though this in an "Unrated" movie and makes good with the buckets of blood, it somehow still felt restrained. Maybe it was because some of the kills felt too far between. Also, a gory movie can't rest on the violence alone. It needs a good script and interesting shots to carry the viewer from scene to scene. Unfortunately, both the script and visual nature of the movie are rather bland. If you're one to sit through trite dialogue just for a good kill, "Boogeyman 2" will be worth your time. However, if blood and guts don't appeal to you at all, there's little chance that anything else in this movie will.
Video
The film is offered in both 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 full screen (something I wish more movies would do). The picture was very clean, and even though it has a general dark and blue-ish tint to most of the feature, I never had trouble seeing what was going on on-screen. The picture quality is extremely good, especially for a direct-to-DVD horror film.
Audio
The film's audio is available in English 5.1 Dolby Digital and accompanied by a French Dolby 2.0 Surround track. The sound works well for the film, but not to the extent I have come to expect from a horror movie with 5.1 surround sound. Very rarely does it make use of throwing sounds around; allowing most of the sound effects, dialogue, and music come at you through the center speaker.
Extras
The DVD opens with a few trailers, which you can thankfully skip. The DVD offers two commentary tracks. The first is with director Jeff Betancourt and screenwriter Brian Sieve. This creators' commentary feels very mechanical. The two similar-sounding men go back and forth talking about where "that came from" and about how "this just worked great". The two basically over-analyze their own film. There is very little personality on the track. This disappointed me, as B-horror movies can potentially have hilarious and modest commentaries, but alas, this did not. The second commentary track features stars Tobin Bell and Danielle Savre, with producers Gary Bryman and Steve Hein. This commentary track is much more relaxed than the other. The four seem to be having fun recounting their experiences making the film, and also drop some pretty humorous observations and jokes. Whenever there is a gruesome kill on screen, Savre will cringe, and one or more of the men will go "Nice." All in all, this commentary was very entertaining. Also included is "Bringing Fear to Life" (4:54), a featurette going over the makeup, effects, and storyboards of the film. This is in no way a traditional making-of. Basically, each kill scene in the movie is shown in storyboard form, then a production still, and then the scene is replayed from the movie. This happens over and over, accompanied only with a creepy section of the movie's score. The rest of the features are trailers. The "Boogeyman 2" trailer (1:39) definitely sets the tone for the movie, and I would recommend people watching it prior to viewing the actual film. It doesn't spoil any of the film's gnarly kills. Also included is a preview gallery with some bonus trailers that played when the DVD starts up, as well as many others. They include a "Blu-Ray" commercial (0:33), trailers for "Resident Evil: Extinction" (0:33), "Dragon Wars" (1:43), "Zombie Strippers" (1:45), "30 Days of Night" (0:33), "Black Water" (2:02), "Gabriel" (1:53), "Southland Tales" (2:33), "Rise: Blood Hunter" (0:32), and an ad for "Fearnet.com" (0:48).
Overall
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