After a traumatic childhood incident that ended with the murder of their mom’s abusive boyfriend, Lacey and Willy, played by real life siblings, Suzanna and Nicholas Love, have tried to live out quiet but happy lives together on a farm. Lacey is married, has a young son, and has sweet, supportive in-laws. Willy has been mute since they were kids, but he’s found his place in the world as a farmhand. One day, a letter from their estranged mother brings all of their bad memories bubbling to the surface.
Lacey’s husband Jake encourages her to go see their mother and face their past. Little does he know that this will open up a pandora’s box of paranormal tomfoolery and murderous rigmarole. Nice going, Jake! Things only get worse when he insists on hanging the very haunted broken mirror from their childhood home in their kitchen. In. Their. Kitchen. What?! Now a bunch of innocent people are getting wacked by flying inanimate objects! Shit, man, if only Lacey hadn’t opened that damned letter from their garbage mother in the first palce, then none of this crap would have ever happened!
Ulli Lommel. What an odd career this dude had. He and his wife/collaborator Suzanna Love did a string of very unusual films in the early 1980s, but The Boogey Man (1980) is the one they are best known for, and for good reason. Love is absolutely excellent in this. She can switch from very naturalistic acting to horror movie hysterics at the drop of a hat. Lacey has a lot of existential dread and traumatic memories to face before she’s possessed by a dang mirror ghost and Love just nails all of it.
For sure, Halloween (1978) was an influence on this film, but so is The Amityville Horror (1979), The Exorcist (1973), and maybe frickin’ Damien: Omen II (1978). Throw in something else from the horror genre with telekinesis released around that time. Patrick (1978)? Jennifer (1978)? Carrie (1976)? Now I’m just listing movies! But this isn’t just a derivative cash-in on other successful films. The Boogey Man is too damn trashy and gloriously weird for that. Characters acting like zombies, kinky visions, adults being gross while children peek at them from windows, repressed memories, rando “teenagers” partying, heavy breathing, and supernatural mechanics that only the film’s enigmatic director understands, are all just a part of what makes this insanity so special.
The Boogey Man has one of my favorite film scores of all time. I really wish composer Tim Krog and the Synthe-Sound-Trax group had done more horror scores, because this one is just outstanding. Every bell and whistle from the various synthesizers they used are packed in here to make this such an eerie and robust score. According to Discogs, Krog and company used an Oberheim 8, a Mini-Moog, a Crumar Multiman-S, and a Prophet V. High five to all my synth nerds out there reading this. My favorite synthesized sound is the strange sound emanating from John Carradine (who plays Lacey’s hypnotherapist). Oh wait, that’s his voice.
The Boogey Man hits so damn hard, even after nearly 45 years since it was released. I remember the cover art distinctly from back when I was a kid, but I didn’t see it until I was an adult. Part of me wishes I’d rented this at 13 when I was trying to rent every single horror film that I could get my hands on. Chances are that my local Blockbuster Video had already purged it to make room for 100 copies of Look Who’s Talking (1989). While 1981 was a huge year for horror -especially slashers- it was 1980 that had the honor of having this odd duck released in it that probably inspired all that mirror-hating propaganda that still plagues us to this day.
The Boogey Man? More like the Blu-Gey Man! I think this might be my favorite release of 2023. I can finally put my old Anchor Bay double feature DVD with this film and The Devonsville Terror (1983) out to pasture as this is THE way to watch The Boogey Man. There is an excellent, trivia-filled audio commentary with the film’s editor Terrell Tannen, moderated by Vinegar Syndrome’s Brad Henderson. He discusses just how unusual the film’s production was! Author, editor, and film critic Kat Ellinger also does an excellent audio commentary track. It’s always great to hear her perspective on one of my favorite films and this track is no exception.
The extras continue as there is a long interview with Suzanne AKA Sukey Love. She burns through a lot of topics very quickly and her stories have many tangents, so hold on tight for this one. Cinematographer/co-writer, David Sperling, is also interviewed and he relates some very cool stories about working with Lommel. Next up is an interview with actress Catherine Tambini who relates some funny anecdotes even though she worked on Boogey Man only briefly. Camera operator Jürg V. Walther discusses his career and working on this film. Terrell Tannen returns to the disc, in interview form, to dish more good stuff on Boogey Man. And if all of this wasn’t enough, there’s also an archival interview with Ulli Lommel. And trailers, and TV spots. Phew!