 
Ever
since he was a child, a troubled man
named Tim (Barry Watson) has been creeped
out by the boogeyman that's in his old
closet whenever the lights went out.
His father Mr. Jensen (Charles Mesure)
tried to convince him that the boogeyman
doesn't exist but eventually it killed
his father.
Nowadays, Tim is seeing hallucinations
and goes back to his old house which has
been abandoned ever since and tries to
find out from an aid of a little girl
named Franny (Skye McCole Bartusiak) how
to stop the boogeyman before he wreaks
more havoc as he feels like he's going
crazy about this issue since he can't
seem to escape from this deadly spirit
whom is trying to keep him at his old
house and making him create more anxiety
and frightened too.
A fairly well done
and spooky flick for those who were
scared of the dark as a child.
It was almost a message towards the end
of the film on how to overcome your
fears.
It didn't do all that well at the box
office but that's to be expected since
this was a cult film but it was quite
imaginative and very detailed on every
childs fear of the dark like I mentioned
and would scare any little kid while
watching this one.
The acting is very
good. Barry Watson's performance
was a plus. He knew how to make his
character come to life expecially with
his anxiety attacks and fear of the dark.
Emily
Deschanel shows a nice bubbly
personality as a childhood friend
reuniting making her outgoing performance
looking natural.
Child actress Skye McCole
Bartusiak was another natural with
her icy and quiet type voice and
expressionless actions as she is a
perfect spirit in the film near the
haunted house.
Tory Mussett seems to have the right
chemistry playing the romantic and caring
girlfriend as she pulls off at being
flirtatious.
The directing is
also well done as he displays the going
on's in a dark room and truly revealing
your fears of the dark.
We have an impressive opening with a
child playing a younger Tim which is
performed by Aaron Murphy lying
in bed acting a little scared of the dark
and looking around his room seeing
ghostly events and him trying to put a
stop to all this.
There's a good presence on Charles
Mesure as the dad pulling the covers
away from his son as you thought it would
be the boogeyman. He looks good at
standing inside the closet and you expect
something to jump up and get him and
later it does. He reacts well at gasping
when he is thrown around by this force in
the closet and it looks good when he is
pulled in.
There are perfect camera shots with Barry
Watson closing a closet door as the
camera is standing behind the closet when
he shuts it as well as him looking under
the bed. With all this you wonder if
something spooky might happen.
We spot a real tense hallucination
sequence involving supporting actress Lucy
Lawless returning from the dead
towards Watson as he is on the
floor quivering and she is acting intense
with him with paranoid features.
Watson really shows great intense
fright and anxiety trying to leave Tory
Mussett and not explaining why and
we get a nice shocked reactions from her
when she tries to choke it out of him as
to why he has to go.
We spot a nice shot in a hospital room on
small child actress Olivia Tennet
screaming in fear in her hospital bed
while staring at something as she shows
nice wide eyed expressions.
We spot a good flashback memory of an
argument between Lawless and Mesure,
then Murphy is standing there
looking expressionless as the picture has
a nice dysfunctional feel to it.
Nice looking shot of the camera looking
down on Watson when he is trying
to screw a llightbulb into its socket to
make it stay lit in the closet and fast
movement and blurry scenes in the closet
as if something is attacking him in
there.
The dialogue for the first time between Watson
and child actress Skye McCole
Bartusiak
was very still in the night outside which
had a nice dark and suspenseful feel to
it as there was a nice wind howling sound
and some mist too.
Tory Mussett seems to do her
dialogue well with Watson in a
hotel room trying to get him to forget
about what has happened and it looks very
mushy too.
There's good shots on each of the actors Watson
in his hotel looking around and acting
worried along with Emily Deschanel
in the old house looking
for him.
Then we have a nice jumping moment when
they each go to the door and shock one
another.
There's great powerful moments with
Watson when he tries to go to the
aid of Bartusiak
on how to conquer this boogeyman
which looks very adventureous.
Both Watson and Deschanel play
off well by trying to battle this evil
force expecially in a bathroom scene as
there's great effects there with stuff
coming out of the bathtub and swarming
around them.
They also react well by
grabbing onto something in a bedroom when
a closet door opens up and tries to suck
them in.
There are many jumps, twists and turns on
Stephen T. Kay's work and shows
nice shots on people's hands opening
doors and supernatural forces catching
you by surprise.
He has only been in the directing
business for over a decade with a handful
of projects and apart from directing he
is also an actor and was known to star in
the daytime soap General Hospital.
The music was composed by Joseph
LoDuca who has worked in many other
shows too as he has nice soft violin and
piano playing along with fantasy sounding
synthesizer music.
Tim:
For fifteen years, everybody told me I
was making it up. Everyone said it was
just a story. There's no such thing as
the Boogeyman. But I was right.
Katie:
Listen to me Tim. It's time to grow up.
Nothing supernatural happened. These
feelings you're having, they're going to
get worse unless you face this. Go home
Tim. Spend one night in that house. It
will help.
Jessica:
Hey, you're not getting weird on me again
are you?
Tim: No.
Tim:
It's just hard to get back.
Kate: It takes a while.
Tim:
Do you want to tell me why you're
following me around?
Shredder Tibby Weub: I wanted to
ask you something. Is it true, the
Boogeyman took your Dad? Are you scared?
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