Boogeyman 2 (2007) review

Dir. Jeff Betancourt

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★½

Boogeyman was an embarrassingly lousy horror film with a CW-esque aesthetic and nary a moment of genuine dread or tension. That said, it’s probably a good thing that Boogeyman 2, a straight-to-DVD sequel, ditches the supernatural elements of its predecessor in favor of a slasher approach. Make no mistake, this is still a bad movie, but it at least has a pulse in the form of some brutal slayings and a notable performance by Tobin Bell.

This time, its siblings Laura (Danielle Savre) and her brother, Henry (Matt Cohen), who are haunted by “the Boogeyman,” a term they give to a home invader who killed their parents many years back. Fast-forward to the present and they’re scarred individuals that check into a mental healthy facility run by Dr. Allen (Bell). In the hospital, Laura and Henry meet individuals with a wide-range of problems, including bulimia, cutting, and a fear of the dark. Unbeknownst to them until the body count starts racking up is that a killer walks the halls of the mental hospital, and uses their traumas to torture and butcher them.

Consider a woman who has an eating disorder, who meets her fate when the masked Boogeyman forces tubes inside of her mouth and pumps her with fat until she explodes. Or a woman who cuts herself, and is forced to cut living maggots festering underneath her arms.

These kills are gnarly and brutal, and might’ve worked for a film that wasn’t so rough around the edges. Still plaguing this Boogeyman are long stretches of flaccid human drama and thinly drawn characters defined by their mental conditions. The titular killer also isn’t very interesting. He lumbers the halls like an inert Freddy Krueger — speaking of which, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors took place in a hospital — and his mask and costume look cheap and derivative.

Even if some of the kills might be inspired, Boogeyman 2 is still an uneventful slog. Its first problem is making a sequel to a movie so brazenly bad that it was forced to ditch all connection to it in order to lay a foundation. Trading the supernatural angle for a slasher one was the best move that could’ve been made, but this forgettable effort is the metaphorical lipstick on the metaphorical pig that is this sorry, sullen franchise.

NOTE: As of this writing, Boogeyman 2 is available to stream on Tubi, free of charge.

My review of Boogeyman (2005)

Starring: Danielle Savre, Matt Cohen, David Gallagher, Mae Whitman, Renee O’Connor, and Tobin Bell. Directed by: Jeff Betancourt.