Tags:
Film: The Boogens
Year: 1981
Director: James L. Conway
Writer: Jim Kouf and David O’Malley
Starring: Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren and Anne-Marie Martin
Review:
This film begins telling us the history of a silver mine in Colorado that created a boom town, but then there was a series of accidents with in the mines so they were sealed up and closed off. It was thought to be a cave-in, but there were a lot of deaths when the miners were buried inside.
We then see there are a couple of young men, played by Fred McCarren and Jeff Harlan, who are helping out with John Crawford and Med Flory. They are there to open back up the mines. McCarren is an electrical engineer, so he is there to wire it so they can properly open the mines back up. Harlan and McCarren are also waiting on Harlan’s girlfriend and her friend to join them. They are renting a house where Harlan’s girlfriend’s friend will start to work for the Denver Post.
We then see a woman, played by Marcia Dangerfield, almost hit a deer that night and crash her car. She abandons it and goes up to a house. She starts to open it up and makes a phone call to say that she is getting it ready for the group that is renting it out. She goes down to the basement to turn on the furnace and she hears something. She is then attacked.
The next day, a deputy played by Scott Wilkinson, finds Dangerfield’s car, but there is no sight of her. He starts to look into it. McCarren and Harlan are also back to work, ready for the women to join them that day.
We then see them, played by Rebecca Balding and Anne-Marie Martin. Martin is the one seeing Harlan and she also has brought her dog along. There is a point where the dog is let out of the car and runs off. The two women go searching for it and are worried when they can’t find it. They then go back to the car and find it standing on the roof. They continue on.
The men take their maps into the tunnels to try to ensure there are no more cave-ins. They end up finding an extra tunnel. They take it to find an underground spring. It is decided at the end of the shift that Harlan needs to go to Denver to collect more updated maps. He is upset, because his girlfriend will be here that night and he is bummed he can’t spend the whole night with her. He is somewhat inappropriate and constantly in the mood.
The film then shifts back to the house where we hear Martin and we think something is going on. It turns out she is being tickled by Harlan. Balding comes out of the shower and she is in nothing but a towel with her backside exposed. McCarren sees it and says something to her. She is then startled. The four of them go out to the bar where they meet up with Flory and Crawford. Martin starts to hustle the men in pool while McCarren and Balding hit it off. Harlan leaves early, taking the pick-up truck with him to go to Denver.
He goes home first to get some sleep, but he is then attacked by something. It cuts his throat and pulls him under the truck. The next day, they realize that he is missing and that he never mind it to Denver. What killed him? Is anyone in the town safe? Who is the creepy old man who is watching everything, he is played by Jon Lormer.
Now I came in not knowing a lot about this film and after watching it, I have realized that it is a typical campy, 80’s horror film, which I am big fan of. The biggest thing with this film is that I like that we don’t see the monster until the climax of the film. I am a big fan of not seeing the monster unless we have to build suspense. The monster doesn’t look like the most real thing, but it also doesn’t look that bad either. I was impressed speaking of the era and what some of the films looked like. The film does build some suspense and we don’t realize most of the people are missing until the climax which is good, speaking this film only takes place during a couple of days or so.
This film does come with its flaws as well. The first issue that I noticed was that the script isn’t all that good. The film is a tad boring. I am also confused that why blowing the main tunnel, would open all of the little tunnels that lead to everywhere in the town. If there was a reason that this happened, I wish it would have been explained, because I was confused. I also didn’t feel bad about any of the characters being killed except the dog, which I hate to see. I also would have liked to know more about the monsters. They aren’t explained at all and I would have liked to know something about them.
Now with that said, if you like 80’s campy horror films, I would recommend this one. The acting is okay, the story is lacking something and the film could have been better overall. I would have liked the story to go a little bit deeper into the history of the monsters than what it did. The monsters do not look bad though, which is surprising for the era it came out in. There seemed to be some plot-holes were not explained and that hurt my rating of the film. If you want something really scary, I would avoid this one. If you want one that is a little cheesy, then I think this is right up your alley.
My Rating: 5 out of 10