The Boogey Man (1980)

Directed by: Ulli Lommel
Starring: Suzanna Love, John Carradine, Ron James
Written by: Ulli Lommel
Music by: Tim Krog & Synthe-Sound-Trax
Country: United States
Available on: DVD (Sony)
IMDb

Ulli Lommel’s The Boogey Man is probably better known for Tim Krog’s incredible music than it is for its accomplishments as a supernatural slasher, though it was a minor hit that spawned two sequels. Krog’s score is a fairly experimental, Moog-driven masterpiece that succeeds at incorporating both creepy, earmworm melodies ala John Carpenter’s Halloween and unsettling, dissonant soundscapes. The aural textures of The Boogey Man immensely elevate what’s otherwise a slow, but sometimes weirdly effective film. The movie itself, about a young boy who stabs his mother’s abusive boyfriend to death only to find his family and friends haunted by the vengeful spirit of the boyfriend (as channeled through a haunted mirror), isn’t too bad at all. Although it’s very slowly paced, Lommel uses the time to create a densely spooky mood that manages to make the skin crawl, even though the killer is a bunch of shards of glass that glow red. This is a movie with a good handful of very silly moments, such as the climax, in which protagonist Lacey (played by the adorable Suzanna Love, Lommel’s wife at the time) is possessed by the ghost via a piece of glass that lodges in her eye socket. (It gave me real Superman III vibes.) A boyfriend’s skewering in a car that turns into kiss kebab with his gal is another ludicrous sliver. But each of these scenes is as unsettling as it is preposterous because of Lommel’s skill at using expectations (or lack thereof) against the audience. One moment, you’re like, “Haha that girl has a piece of glass over her eye like a shiny pirate who’s levitating and growling, ‘Get away!’ over and over again” and then you’re like, “Oh shit there’s a girl with a shard of glass in her eye for some reason, hissing ‘Get away!’ like she’s in a creepy demonic trance.” But before I make The Boogey Man seem like some kind of oddball work of art, I should reiterate that this is mostly a leisurely stroll through well-worn supernatural territory, with plot holes and underdeveloped characters aplenty (including a major failure to make the boyfriend-murdering kid’s adulthood trauma of any import whatsoever). But there are just enough strange and hypnotic moments, working in tandem with one of the best soundtracks in the genre, to give this a unique flavor.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10