Tags:
Film: Boogeyman II
Year: 2007
Director: Jeff Betancourt
Writer: Brian Sieve
Starring: Danielle Savre, Matt Cohen and Chrissy Calhoun
Review:
This film begins with a family. They are having a birthday party for their daughter. She has just gotten a dollhouse. She asks her brother to help her set it up. He states he will, but needs to use the bathroom. He goes into the hallway and something scares him, he returns to the party. His father notices that his son still has not gone to the bathroom and scolds him. We learn that a light is out in the hallway, which he goes to fix while his son uses the bathroom. Soon after the daughter witnesses her father get murder. Her brother comes out and they see a man leaving. They find their mother dead in the kitchen as well. They both think it was the boogeyman that killed them.
We then move ten years into the future. The daughter has grown up to be Danielle Savre. She is going to pick up her brother from a mental hospital that has helped him deal with his fear of the boogeyman. Savre meets with his doctor while she waits; the doctor is played by Renée O’Connor. O’Connor knows that Savre has been dealing with issues similar to her brother and wants to help her. Savre tells her that she has hers under control and is fine. Her brother has grown up to be Matt Cohen.
As they talk, we learn that Cohen has a job interview the following day in San Francisco and this bothers Savre. We learn it is because she has not gotten her issue under control like she said. She has taken off the door to her closet and has lights set-up so there are not dark corners, preventing the boogeyman from getting her. She can’t continue to deal with her fear alone and she doesn’t want Cohen to leave her. He convinces her to go to the program he just left. She reluctantly agrees.
We learn that the program is run by Tobin Bell with the help of O’Connor. We also meet the other patients that are dealing with their fears as well. We have Chrissy Calhoun who is bulimic and has fears of getting fat and losing the one she loves. There is Michael Graziadei, who we learn later dated Calhoun, who is agoraphobic which means he is scared of the outside world and the people in it. We have Mae Whitman, who cuts herself; Johnny Simmons, who is afraid of germs, and finally David Gallagher, who is afraid of the dark.
Savre is putting away her clothes in her closet, when the light goes out. She notices the painting that was left by her brother is similar to the scene. The string for the light is the same. While she stares into the back of the closet, it looks into the hallway of the house she grew up in.
In her first session, Savre tells the group what her fear is and she is made fun of for it to the point where she leaves the group. Gallagher is the only one that stands up for her. She wants to leave the place, but she is convinced by O’Connor to stay.
That night Gallagher gets a package from a worker at the site. He goes down into the basement where he has an old chair set-up. He opens the package to find marijuana. He also takes out a hidden adult magazine. He hears something that makes him clean up what he is doing. The lights begin to go out. He yells that he is down there and tries to get to the elevator. He is in darkness and panics. We learn that he is killed, almost cut in half by the elevator.
Bell states that it was an accident. Savre is not so sure. She calls Cohen, who tells her that he just got to San Francisco. He would do his interview and then come to the hospital afterward. He stated he wouldn’t be there until the morning though.
That night Simmons is cleaning his room and discovers that cockroaches have gotten into his chips. He puts one of them in his mouth and freaks out. The boogeyman visits him and pushes him cleaner. Simmons drinks it and dies.
Everyone discovers this crime; they think it is a suicide though. They try to call for help, but the phones are down. O’Connor tries to find a way to get them out, but they are locked in. The boogeyman starts to pick everyone off, one by one, using their fears against them. Is the boogeyman real or is it someone else posing as the boogeyman? Will anyone be able to survive this night?
I need to lead off this that I was not a huge fan of the original. I do have to say that I thought Savre was good looking. Calhoun could be good looking as well, but she is a little bit too skinny, which is fitting for her character. I thought some of the deaths were creative. The story isn’t horrible, but it is also is repetitive of films that have come out already in the same genre. I do have to admit that I liked that they tied this one in with the first film, even though it changes the story. I also feel the ending has a decent twist.
I have to admit that I didn’t care for the original. That one was based loosely on a Stephen King novel. The concept isn’t bad, but I wasn’t a huge fan. This film does something differently, but as stated above, it changes what the first one puts out and I hate that. The acting isn’t very good and the film is pretty boring for the most part. My issue with the end though is O’Connor should have been dead from what happened to her, yet she is still alive. I was also confused to the timeline for this film. They state that Cohen’s interview is the next day, but it takes at least 2 before his interview. Also the ending states that Savre has been in the hospital for a few days, but it doesn’t seem to play that way on film.
I would not recommend seeing this film. There are better horror films that take place in mental hospitals. There are also better horror films that have a boogeyman like figures as well. The acting is subpar, the story is a little weak, but I will give that the death scenes are pretty good. The timeline for this film was also confusing which takes it’s rating down for me. This is a sequel for a horror film that really wasn’t all that good and this one changes around the history of this series. This should be avoided unless you are set on watching all the films in the series.
My Rating: 4 out of 10