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Boogeyman (2005)

Starring Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, and Lucy Lawless.  Cinematography by Bobby Bukowski.  Edited by John Axelrad. Produced by Daniel Carrillo, Hans Jürgen Pohland, Rob Tapert, and Sam Raimi. Written by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White.  Directed by Stephen T. Kay.

As an eight year old child Tim (played by Aaron Murphy) watched his father (played by Charles Mesure) get sucked into his closet and killed by a powerful a demonic force known to him as “The Boogeyman”. Twenty years later Tim (now played by Barry Watson) still lives with this debilitating fear. He has transformed his apartment into a luminous and transparent environment that provides no shadows for evil to lurk in. 

His fragile comfort zone is invaded when he receives word that his mother (played by Lucy Lawless) had died and he must return to his childhood home to tie up loose ends and collect her things. Upon the urging of his former psychologist, Tim begrudgingly decides to spend the night in the house and confront his fears. But unbeknownst to everyone but Tim, there really is a “Boogeyman” and he has unfinished business with him.

In the brief lapse of time between Spider-Man its sequel, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert joined forces with the German company Senator International to form Ghost House Pictures; a production company devoted to creating new and exciting horror pictures. After raising the bar for the genre in the 1980’s with films like The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, Ghost House has given Raimi and Tapert an opportunity to “return to their roots” of low budget scares. Based in Tapert’s adopted home of New Zealand, the company’s unique focus is on combining elements of the monster movies that have become an American staple, and the Asian ghost films that have recently gained so much attention with US audiences.

Ghost House’s first release was a remake of the 2003 Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge re-titled as The Grudge.  To direct their American remake, Raimi and Tapert were able to recruit filmmaker Takashi Shimizu, the writer and director of the original Japanese version. The Grudge was a tremendous box office success, costing a mere ten million dollars to produce and earning back well over ten times that amount.  Ghost House had discovered its formula and was ready to run with it.

The next film in the pipeline was an original story titled Boogeyman.  When Raimi and Tapert merged with Senator, their European counterparts had already optioned the script which, coincidentally, fit in exactly with the kind of films that Ghost House was trying to produce. Stephen T. Kay, the director of the 2000 remake Get Carter, had yet to work in the genre and was excited to take his maiden voyage with producers as iconic as Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. 

Together they crafted a decent film, laced with psychological twists and visual thrills. Boogeyman certainly isn’t the end-all of the horror genre, but it’s entertaining and good for a jump or two. And American audiences seemed to agree, rewarding it with a take of more than twice its budget. With Ghost House Pictures now batting two for two (financially anyway), one can imagine that Raimi will be wearing his producer’s hat for many years to come.

Budget: $20,000,000

Total US Gross: $46,363,118

Genre: Horror

Runtime: 89 Minutes

US Release Date: 2/4/05

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Awards: TBD

Tagline: You Thought It Was Just A Story.

Quote: “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.”