Boogeyman 2 (2008)

Director: Jeff Betancourt

Starring: Danielle Savre (Laura Potter), Matt Cohen (Henry Potter), Chrissy Griffith (Nicky), Michael Graziadei (Darren), Mae Whitman (Alison), Renee O'Connor (Dr. Jessica Ryan), Dr. Mitchell Allen (Tobin Bell), David Gallagher (Mark)

Year - 2008

Score - 2 Howls Outta 4

BOOGEYMAN 2 is a loose sequel to the 2005 PG-13 supernatural thriller. The film follows a young Laura and Henry Potter as they witness some supernatural evil entity murder their mom and dad. Ten years pass and the two siblings are at different points in their lives. Henry (Matt Cohen), living at psychiatric unit for a while, has successfully been rehabilitated and is able to move on with his life. Laura (Danielle Savre) is still haunted by this Boogeyman and decides to follow in her brother's footsteps and tries to get cured. She settles into the psychiatric ward with the help of Dr. Jessica Ryan (Renee O'Connor), who does her best to make her feel welcome. Unfortunately once Laura arrives, patients inside the ward begin dying one-by-one, looking like suicides based on their respective phobias. Is the Boogeyman after Laura to finish the job? Is it a copycat trying to scare Laura? Is Jigsaw attempting another...oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was a SAW film since Tobin Bell is in it. My bad...

REVIEW
BOOGEYMAN 2, a straight-to-DVD feature, does what its predecessor couldn't do: keep me entertained. Yes, BOOGEYMAN 2 is better than BOOGEYMAN, which I honestly wasn't a big fan of. Still, this sequel is mediocre. While I did think it was okay, the film came off like a wannabe version of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS. You had the psychiatric ward. You had the teenagers who were afraid of things. You had that one doctor who believed the kids were making excuses about the "death" situation. You had the grisly murders and gore. Yep, it was all here.

It also followed the slasher rulebook to a tee. You had the unstoppable killer. You had the teenagers who did the stupidest things, like have sex knowing there's a murderer in the ward [hey, you gotta die happy!]. We know pretty much who is gonna survive the film. And then we have that ending that reminds me of those SCOOBY-DOO episodes that leads into another unnecessary sequel.

Now don't get me wrong. There are moments that I liked. The characters were kind of more developed than usual, which is nice. The direction, while more low budget than the first, by Jeff Betancourt was actually pretty good. The gore level was high, with some neat deaths. And the acting from everyone involved was quite good.

But why have characters get together and then break up when we know pretty much NOTHING about them? Am I supposed to care about this couple? Should I root for them to make it? Fuck that. The relationship between my right hand and my penis is deeper than the relationship of this couple. And the villain...he had NO screen presence whatsoever and came off pretty bland. Aren't slasher films supposed to have a bad guy [or bad girl] with a personality qualified enough to carry a film? If we can't root for most of the victims nor the villain, then feelings toward the film go from interested to "eh".

And the whole final act was just ridiculous, I thought. The chase scene was WAY too long and too complicated for a simple film like this. Plus the reveal of the killer was no shock to me at all, as I nailed it on the head. Even the SCOOBY-DOO ending was also very predictable and it will unfortunately lead to BOOGEYMAN 3 [which has already been greenlit for production]. Pretty much left a dry taste in my mouth.

THE FINAL HOWL
Definite rental. Buy only if you really like this film. I thought it was just average, yet an improvement over the original BOOGEYMAN. So that counts for something, I guess. If you like predictable and generic twists and some decent gore, this may be a good watch for you. If you're looking for something intelligent, move along.