*Know a "bad" movie that needs a re-evaluation? Let me know in the comments!* Go to expressvpn.com/ryan and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free! Sponsored by ExpressVPN.
Please cover the differences between Lord of Illusions the Director's Cut and the mangled incomprehensible mess they put out i. Theater and TV! The director and writer's cut is a Different movie!
I know they're not bad, but I'd love to see your take on either The Frighteners or Tales From The Crypt presents: Demon Knight. Love your videos, keep up the great work! 😁
I find the gimmick with the creature taking on the forms of stuff around the victim's home and destroying those will hurt the creature like horcruxes to be really clever
Right? I used to be afraid to go into the living room at night because the VCR had this "cute" sleep mode face like =°.°= and I definitely convinced myself it was a rat king. I would STILL love to smash that thing.
Yeah though it makes it more disappointing that they ended up with the final form. They couldn't just turn off the lights in a room and think of a scary looking thing they see?
I felt like that with the movie the superdeep, the idea and the creature SUPER cool but the acting was abysmal and the dialogue from that movie sounded like one long NPC conversation.
I think that a movie that tackles the idea of how diverse the myth of the Boogeyman can be and features a monster that appears differently to different people and functions under different rules, kills in different ways and has different weaknesses, depending on who interacts with it would be fun. Maybe one person grew up thinking that the Boogeyman lived under the bed and dragged people into a shadowy dimension from under the bed with its long arms but it couldn't grab you if no part of your body touched the ground, maybe another character grew up thinking that the Boogeyman can't find them under their sheets, making them effectively invisible as well as unable to see an otherwise unstoppable monster that's so terrifying that the sight of it would drive that person mad enough to gouge their own eyes out and die screaming bloody murder. There are so many fun and interesting ideas such a story could explore if it didn't go for the safest and the most generic option
"The boggey man can teleport between closets..." Literally Monster's Inc except horror and told through the eyes of children traumatized by random furry creatures coming out of their closets.
In the sequels we learn that Boogeyman was actually part of a large company and his colleagues start worrying when they don't see him show up to work. So they send a rescue team.
because both are based on common, international concept of monster in the closet known for generations. Literally Boogeyman here can appear in top 3 places kids afraid monster to be. All you need more is belief that it can't go outside underbed if kid has foot covered with blanket and arms on a bed instead of hanging below
Stephen King's short story about The Boogeyman is definitely one of his scariest stories in my book. It's told from the perspective of a guy (who is kind of a jerk) in denial that a supernatural, monstrous being has murdered his children. It focuses more on adult fear than child fear, which is probably what makes the story work, but it does specifically invoke that the kids know exactly what's hunting them, and that the man's inability to admit the Boogeyman is real is his fatal flaw. He can't tap into the child-like fear that would have ultimately saved his children. It's also NOT "monster as metaphor" (for the most part, anyway) but more like "the world is full of random, terrible things that will target you" and in this case it happens to be the Boogeyman. I'd love to see the story adapted (I think it got a small one in an anthology series?) as a full-length feature. If Hereditary got the fear of "death of a child" right, imagine how horrific it could be for three of them?
Right? I listened to the audio of that and it was terrifying. I thought this movie was gonna be that....then I realized it wasn't....same with lawnmower man, but I knew better than to watch that one.
@@CashelOConnolly they capitalised Literal, so it's not "literal", it's "Literal", as in either a title or as taken exactly from the text or description of the Boogeyman and adapted exactly as such. Cheers :)
I found this movie can be quite interesting. I feel like he was going back to his childhood home to face his fears in order to become a adult. Plus, any chance to see Lucy Lawless on the screen is great.
If some elements were handled better and corporate suits didn't get in the way, this movie could've been a good psychological horror. Not the best or the most original, but good.
It’s a weird and messy film. When i was a kid it scared me. Then when i revisited it as a more cynically snobbish teenager i only perceived it as rubbish with horrible cgi and nothing else. Now after revisiting it i now thing it’s an interesting idea with some neat things going for it, terribly executed and i think it’s a funny thing that the cinematography at times looks like a Marilyn Manson music video
The one reason I found A24 horror a fresh breath of air is because horror is seen as a cheap and easy movie to make if it's your first film which furthers the narrative that horror is poor filmmaking. It's not true of course, but until A24 and Jordan Peele started making well written and gorgeous horror people now see it as a style, or another way to tell a story. So I am excited to see what kind of stuff we next. I'll also be glad to stop trying to pretend I enjoyed my friends cheap horror movies they made out of film school.
@@xalanii couldn't have said it better. Until then I felt most American horror was not that well done. There were some gens but for my person taste in horror I ended up enjoying the atmosphere and psychology of horror from Spanish -speaking and Asian filmmakers more.
I disagree. Whatever you want to call it, it is undoubtable that there are certain films (often but not always by A24) that just have a more artistic approach. Think genre lit vs Nobel prize material. It affects the style of the film and often also the intended audience. This does not necessarily mean that one is better than the other. But saying that they're exactly the same and there is no need to differentiate between them is kind of ridiculous, for the specific reason that they tend to cater to different audiences. Concepts such as "elevated horror" arise BECAUSE people see a difference in category and people enjoy labeling different categories, so we can find more stuff we like. Obviously the line between the two categories isn't absolute, there are many films that would be difficult to classify as either one or the other, but that doesn't make the labels themselves useless. They have a function for a lot of people, is essentially my point.
@@xalanii I'm glad we're getting these unconventional and arthouse horror movies, but I don't like the term "elevated horror". It's really pompous and condescending because it suggests that these movies hover above the genre, like we've been waiting this entire time for someone to make horror a "serious genre". Horror has been tackling psychological themes and human drama for literal centuries, in cinema at least since The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and The Phantom Carriage.
@@viljamtheninja Arthouse Horror is definitely the better term, less pretentious but the films ARE different. How often do we hear about people new to A24 see an A24 fic and then bounce off the film entirely because it doesn't jive with what their notion of horror is.
seeing footage from this movie has opened up memories of yet another creature-from-the-dark film called They (2002). The similarities are palpable, except that the blank canvas protagonist is a woman. What I distinctly remember from this film is the twist ending, which does a much better job of rolling off the beaten path into supernatural territory. If you have the mental to survive yet another early 2000's horror trope movie, you might find it enjoyable in its own right. It's also quite difficult to find, from my limited attempts at researching it.
Are you talking about the one where (SPOILERS) where the woman and her two children are actually the ones haunting the house after the mom had a meltdown and killed everyone? If so, I agree completely that one was pretty cool
this era of "scary" movies are so cozy to me now. i can watch this darkness falls and the fog as a fun triple feature like house on haunted hill, the haunting and ghost ship
Oh man, I remember watching this with my parents while I was in middle school and I found it terrifying. I also remember watching White Noise in middle school and being terrified! I was the type of kid to change the channel when a commercial for a scary movie came on lol
I appreciate the call-outs against "elevated horror." I only recently became aware that's a thing people are calling horror movies that they don't want to have to defend liking, since saying you like a horror movie is apparently a faux pas.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the alternate ending where it's revealed that the boogeyman was just an alternate identity and he was the one who killed those around him.
The thing about "elevated horror" is that it has the same problem as Oscar bait films, in that it's often dull, empty, and more concerned about ideas than plot. No sensible person wants their horror to be obnoxious, of course, but that doesn't mean that we should fixate on mood and atmosphere to the point of nothing happening seeing as that's obviously boring.
Yeah A24 for me isn't really elevated horror. It's just what I've seen before just more artsy and commercial. But I appreciate the work and love it went into them. I'll stick to my 2000s horror .
Ryan, the best part of stanning this amazing channel for five years is watching you become more and more comfortable in your own skin, dude. We all celebrate you and thank you.
I hope you dont stop doing these for to long man. I was so big into these cheesy early 2000's horror movies and I loved them, you're like the only guy who gives not totally negative reveiws and just talks about movies I haven't seen in years. Always makes me smile when you cover another one!
@@harrisonlee9585 you mean a trailer that doesn't spoil the movies third act and twists? Not trying to correct you. Legitimately curious as I didn't watch any if the trailers but already know about the movie.
@@alwaysxnever Wasn't even that. The first trailer made Empty Man look like some sort of cliché in the shadows monster movie instead of a slow burn cosmic horror piece.
As an “elevated Horror” lover and defender, you’re right about us 😂 Also I will say, I didn’t remember much of “Boogeyman” from watching it as a kid but Boogeyman 2 is better, with a better twist and payoff and one I revisit for nostalgia sake every now and then.
@@ashethedragon2761 I know Eric Kripke was involved in the both of them. I was like an Eric Kripke super fan when I was 14. I thought the man was a creative genuis haha! I don't know if you've ever watched his show Revolution, but I thought it was a masterpiece 😀
@@lilyiolly1390 Oh yeah, I watched Revolution. Don't know if I ever thought it was a masterpiece but I definitly enjoyed it and was sad when it got cancelled. Honestly I've been thinking about his filmography a lot lately as I just started watching the Boys and I had to remind myself that that's also him.
@@ashethedragon2761 I'm not sure what I'd think of Revolution if I watched it now. But when I watched it when I was 11 or 12, I adored that show! Honestly Kripke's style may be a little cheesy at times, but the guy is definitely creative and takes risks!
@@lilyiolly1390 I completely agree, he's got some wild ideas and really knows how to just go for it. It also helps that the cheese is the endearing kind, it just makes it all fun, even if not objectively good. I definitly don't regret watching anything he's made, it's usually enjoyable in some way. Execution may not always be perfect but he's got some cool ideas and I appreciate that.
The one "Boogieman" - like creature that really works for me is the Babadook. I really enjoy that creature's design and it totally looks like I always imagined "Mr. Shleppel", the Boogieman from the Discworld novel "Reaper man". Who is rather friendly and terribly shy and never goes out, until someone has the idea that he could carry a door to hide behind with him. Near the end of the book some of his friends are in danger, which finally causes him to drop the door... And what's behind it is quite a dangerous beast as it turns out. He's never described in any detail, we only learn that he can turn into a huge, black thing and is pretty strong, so the reader has to make up his own looks. And when I first saw Babadook I was like "THAT'S MISTER SHLEPPEL!!!!". :D
Yeah that one shot where it was just a coat and hat in the background (and the fact that that's all it stems from) is so eerily compelling. And I did find it scary because being possessed into murdering your own child or being murdered by your mother is a fate scary in its own way
I think the problem with this film and why it gets a bad rap is because the thing it does well is show the main character's psychological struggle with fear, anxiety, and a sense of unreality and especially at the time what people were looking for and expecting from a horror film called 'Boogeyman' was a creature feature. Like people just wanted this film to be another 'Jeepers Creepers', and when it wasn't everyone just buried their memory of it and chiseled 'Bad' on the headstone.
Okay, here's my other thoughts. The boogeyman was an interesting concept, because originally the boogeyman was not supposed to be a literal monster. It was supposed to be that he was a child when his father died there was childhood trauma I believe his uncle was the one who attacked his parents, but as a kid he could not come to grips with it and it transformed in his mind into imagery based on his what was in his bedroom. At the climax of the film, he comes to grips with the fact that there was no Supernatural element, it was something. I think his father killed kids or his uncle or something. I don't remember, I used to have the DVD and I watch the bonus features and looked into it. This film is actually more of an indicator early on that American Cinema was going to be designed entirely by committee. When he aired his psychological drama film to the executives, they were annoyed and confused because the movie was called Boogeyman but there was no actual Boogeyman in the movie. They felt that if you did not put an actual Boogeyman in the film moviegoers would be just as confused as well. That's why the wind the boogeyman does show up at the end of the film it is a very very bad even for its time CGI monstrosity. The film had been done the wrapping up have been done and they had to go back and put in some CGI monster simply because some Executives could not understand the concept that the movie could be called something and it wasn't literally in the film. So to that end, I enjoyed watching the film because I like watching train wrecks and then seeing what the history was behind them. This is only in my mind link to the babadook in that does have that same basic theme and if he have been allowed to produce the film the way he originated it probably would be a fair comparison. Garbage film however.
Boogeyman was literally the first horror movie I ever saw. I was 19, had just purchased a blockbuster card, and in a spirit of rebellion against my parents who were very anti-horror, I rented the first horror movie that I came across. This film was my introduction to the genre and as flawed as it was in retrospect, it introduced me to so many classic tropes ('shes been dead the entire time', 'the toys represent the monster', 'doors slowly opening are bad news', 'these films dont have happy endings', 'dark areas are baaad, man') that now, 14 years later, I've seen a million times over, and I love them so very much. I'll always have a soft spot for this movie because it was my first 'horror film'. Still my favorite genre, always will be. Thanks for covering this Ryan, what a lovely trip down nostalgia lane.
Having only caught part of this on a cable channel at one point when I was a young boy who was scared of his own shadow, that scene where the father gets pulled into the closet stuck with me mentally. If I remember correctly, he's on the floor and says "Don't tell your mother" before he gets dragged in for the last time. Scared the hell out of me. Concept for this looks neat though, I think I'll check it out on one of my random horror nights eventually just to get my own feel for it.
Listening to Ryan Hollinger feels like sitting in front of a warm fire with a blankey and soup in a cabin at night. Very comfy but yknow we're still discussing horror
My mind was blown at the revelation that the boogeyman can teleport when I was a kid. I was a huge fan of superpowers like teleportation at the time, so it immediately made it a really good movie for me.
I will never forget the classic Canadian kids show "You Can't Do That on Television" did a skit called the boogeyman. Classic horror premise: A kid is sitting terrified in his bed, and a man dressed in his disco finery comes dancing into the room.
I watched this movie a bunch of times when I was younger, and the main thing I always remember is how it helped learn how locks work. Videos like this are a good reminder that everything deserves at least a little reevaluation.
2000's American horror films, for the most part, were meant to be crowd-pleasing fun movies with spooks and chills. Roller-coasters, essentially. Sometimes they had moments of depth that added to their context, but overall, they were thrill-rides. In light of the horror movies we're bombarded with now where every single one is trying to attack the viewer and society and tell them they're evil, I miss this era. The last recent horror movie I saw, I believe, was Underwater, which captured that same vibe, and I thought it was great.
My fondest memory of seeing this movie as a kid is "Falling Home" by Noisehead playing at the end-credits. It felt like a great tone to end on as the Boogeyman is finally conquered and Tim's earned a second chance to truly move forward with his life. He followed his way back home where this childhood trauma began, faced the monster + his own demons, and came out the other side a better person. While he couldn't save past victims like his dad or Franny, he at least saved Kate and himself. Now, feeling hope for the first time, he lets light shine through that old window into his childhood bedroom where oppressive darkness & bad memories had long dominated. His trauma will always be part of him, but he's no longer a prisoner to it. And since Kate's also gained a deeper understanding of what he's been through, he's not alone in his trauma anymore. Whatever does or doesn't happen between them from here, Tim has found someone who can identify with his experience. From a more psychological POV, the ending could also be perceived as symbolizing him letting the light back into his long darkened mind and soul. After fixating his whole life on this fear that haunted him, he's freed himself of his obsession at last. I think part of why this film resonated with me despite the plot, acting and effects being thoroughly mediocre in my opinion (even for 2005) is because the creature & personal conflict can be interpreted in multiple ways (Ex- Dealing with addiction).
Thing about The Babadook is that he really was real. He was a tulpa boogeyman created by Amelia's own trauma and he was trying to drive her into hurting her son which is a lot scarier then the monster of the film doing hence the execution of that film
Never heard of this movie before seeing your video on it, might be fun to do a 2000s horror marathon of some of the films you’ve covered recently on the channel
I just remember when I was little and saw the posters/dvd cover of this with the arm reaching out of the door at my local Family Video or Dollar General, the image horrified me. It didn’t help that the Boogeyman from WWE also scared me lol.
I never sword this boogeyman but I saw boogeyman 2 on TV late at night when I was 9 and it truly did elevate my fear of the dark for a long time, hope you cover it 1 day.
Before my family had cable or internet (that wasn't dial-up), movies like Boogeyman were our Friday night fright rental. I remember this, The Messengers & The Darkness (2002).
I'm not sure it even qualifies as an "urban legend". It's not really specific enough. It's more a catch-all category for every variation of children's fears about darkness and the unknown in general, however that manifests. I think there's something of interest to be found in an exploration of how and why children begin to develop those fears. It's sorta the dark side of imagination; when you can create wondrous fantasies, you can create terrifying ones, as well, and almost inherently do the latter when you do the former. Call it a permutation of Hugh Laurie's (yes, that one) Laws of Thermodynamics of Conversation (found in his excellent and overlooked comedic spy novel, "The Gun Seller"): "Every statement implies an equal and opposite statement."
More of a mythologized personification of our fears of the unknown as children. There's a reason why for some kids it's under the bed, others it's in the closet, others it's in the walls, others it's in the ceiling. Creepy sound creaking up the stairs when nobody should be awake? Well that's definitely the boogeyman! It's often used kinda like Krampus in order to spook children into behaving in some particular way as well.
Until we see horror movies being recognized and win academy awards, I'm certainly never using the word "elevated horror" as if it means something. In the end, it's all subjective.
I actually kinda liked this movie; it’s not a movie that I love more for the background like Thirt13n Ghosts, it’s not a movie I can say I have a history with like The Messengers, it’s not a guilty pleasure but a bizarre pleasure-the film equivalent of dipping Wendy’s fries in your Frosty. You shouldn’t like it, nothing says it should work, but it works. To me, this movie is like that weird friend you had in middle school: you don’t think about them a lot, but whenever they’re brought up, you remember all the good times you had and just feel a wave of nostalgia.
I took that the missing kids the boogie man took were the children that either were kidnapped or killed and never found, which is also a fear of strangers and being lost kids have.
This is one of those films I've seen, but only remember when it's described to me. I have to say though (hoyever), my oldest had a fever induced hallucination at around age 3, where he saw a man standing behind my bedroom door. Being woke by a screaming child in the middle of the night, and the light from the hallway falling perfectly on the opened door, led to me cowering in my bed, clutching my child, and questioning reality. Because, while I knew it was an illusion, I also knew why I never look out of windows when it's dark out, or linger too long by the edge of the bed...
So many horror movies from this period had such a distinct feel to them, I don't know if it was the janky cgi or the Ju-on influences or what but it's a very special thing, even if most of them were quite silly. On the subject of "bad" films you might be interested in covering, and at risk of you having done so already, there's this one film I remember very distinctly called "The Shrine," from 2010 - plays out a bit like they only had the effects budget to afford one big spooky gargoyle statue as a prop and based a whole story around it that I personally found pretty interesting, if a little rough.
I really liked the 'Reeker' shout out/comparison. I remember watching as a kid like 10 years ago and it's a film that's always stuck with me from the cool death, twists throughout and the big reveal at the end, definitely due a rewatch to see how much of it holds up
Same! I've actually been racking my brain the past couple of years being vaguely reminded of that film but could never remember the name, just the creepy sounds and presence of the creature in it. I just rewatched it here on youtube and It doesn't exactly hold up to the terror it gave me as a kid, but it's a better than average horror flick, and it's definitely unique I'd say.
Oh man, it's so great that you're doing a video on this one. I forgot it existed until now, which is funny because as a kid, before I got into horror movies, the trailer and even just the DVD box art scared me so bad I couldn't sleep.
This movie used to scare the shit out of me, not from the actual movie itself cause I never saw it but from the promotional poster. I had gone to a friends house after seeing a movie when I was a kid and in the theatre I distinctly remember seeing a poster for The Boogeyman, it terrified me, a dark blue hand silently opening up a kids closet door at dusk when all is even quieter? That shits horrifying when you’re little! When we got home it was dusk and we ran up to his room and noticed that his closet was exactly the same as the one in the poster, same color, same door, same way of opening…and it was slightly open…we turned on the tv to try and forget about it and as soon as we turn it on a tv promo for the film popped up and I remember clearly seeing the ghost kids all reaching out to the guy in the middle…I went home and cried myself to sleep thinking the actual boogeyman had come out of my friends closet and was following me…waiting to send his children after me…sometimes the minds scarier than the actual movie
I really liked this movie because it made me think of MY Boogyman or rather, Boogy dinosaur. (My parents took me to see Jurassic Park and I had nightmares of the Raptors coming to eat me.) Then it made me think of others boogeyman. Later in supernatural I learned of the Tulpas. Beings that are created by the manifested thoughts of others. So it is just interesting to think of that sort of thing. Plus I actually get this and Darkness falls mixed up. It was the darkness falls in always staying in the light and the removing of the doors of the cabinets and the like. When you think about it, these two movies do have a lot of similarities.
Ironically, "To hell if I'm ever gonna watch them" is exactly what was said by the writers of the sequels when asked about the movies that came before theirs
Interesting you mention Reeker, because I always get that confused with another direct-to-video horror from around the same time called Rest Stop. They share similar isolated desert locations and ambiguous, purgatorial vibes. But whereas Reeker lifts its big rug-pull twist directly from 2003’s Dead End, Rest Stop leaves everything an incomprehensible puzzle where there’s clearly something supernatural going on but there’s also a human serial killer (or killers) somehow connected to it. There’s a 2008 sequel I vaguely remember watching, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it.
I remember another Boogeyman movie back from the 80s-90s. Not the 1982 version, but a more comedy driven film. All I can really remember from it is: The family finds glowing green footprints on all the walls of the bathroom. No-one is frightened or shocked, and the father even peels some prints off the wall and cover himself in them. Why are the awesome movies never remade or remastered?
I remember watching this around 2007-2008 (I was around 15-16 at the time and in my country's version of high school) with some of my friends at a movie night - we watched it as the first one because it was said to be a horror movie and non of us wanted to get too scared - when the kids showed up on screen in what I assume was supposed to be a very tense and scary moment one of my friends yelled something along the lines of "They're smurfs!". Everyone started laughing and we couldn't take the movie seriously after that. It's a bad movie (even though it's quite good at establishing tension and how the main character's mind works in some scenes and little details - like how the main character doesn't own any closets but has all his clothes hanging out in the open) but because of the fond memories I have of it, it holds a special place in my heart :)
I like what you said about hiding you're anxiety and fear behind smiles. Because I've pretty much became a professional at it , not by choice but necessity.
In the mid 2000's there were a lot of Ghost House / LionsGate horror flicks that weren't memorable but worth watching. I've never heard of "Reeker" so that's on my list now. Thanks Ryan.
When I saw the title I thought it was the 1980's "The Boogey Man" flick. This movie is also worth a watch. It's about a little girl who, through the reflection in a mirror, witnesses her brother killing their mother's abusive lover. Then the mirror gets possessed by the dark twisted soul of this man and haunts them into adulthood.
When I was a child I had to spend hours in the car with my dad doing nothing, and to pass the time he would tell me the stories of horror movies he watched (maybe that's why now I enjoy this type of videos even more than watching the actual movies). This is one that for some reason really stuck with me, I though it was the scariest thing ever. We didn't rent movies often, and one day this movie was on tv, we were so excited to watch it, sadly it was already during the ending part, and to make things even more intense there was a HUGE thunderstorm, so the cable signal was awful. I remember so vividly the scene with the flashing light as the image came and go on the screen, i was terrified lol Now I know it isn't nearly as scary as i've believed all these years, but still, it was a story that started my love for horror.
The fact that Eric Kripke the dude who wrote Supernatural also wrote the story for this film makes me wish it had just been a script for the earlier seasons of Supernatural. They had strong horror vibes back in the day.
Boogeyman (2005) and its two sequels will always stick out to me purely for the number of times I saw their covers during my frequent browsing's of the Wal-Mart DVD shelves when I was a kid. 😆💀
The Boogieman in German is called "Der schwarze Mann" (The Black Man) and is just another "you better behave" Tool for parents. It is a popular game for children where one child is the "Boogieman" and yells "Who is affraid of the Boogieman" towards other children, wich reply "Noone" the one child ask then "And when He comes?" the other children answere "we run!" than they run towards the one child and if it touches you, you become another Boogieman. Not so fun-fact: 1992 - 2001 there was a RL Boogieman in Germany. He molestet over 40 children in that Time...broke into Camps, tents and houses... He never said a thing beside "If you scream, I will kill you" and "It's almost over." Most disturbingly, he worked with children during the day...
I hate the term "elevated horror" because it also just carries this implication that Horror is inherently some lesser, unsophisticated genre, and ugly duckling of cinema that has to somehow prove itself to be something genuinely good. Horror doesn't get enough respect, and that is hella annoying.
I'm only at the beginning of the video, but the story summary kind of reminds me of the dark romanticism novel The Sandman, wich is about a guy who is trying to cope with his childhood trauma from a weird boogeyman type figure that traumatized him as a child and probably killed his father. The story later evolves into being more about the main guy falling in love with an automat named olimpia and also going insane along the way, but it is similar...
I do think this is movie is a little underrated, don't get me wrong it's bad, but I often bring it up as an example of a story that nearly works but keeps falling just short. Personally I think it would have been a lot stronger if it had turned out the Boogeyman wasn't real and Tim was a serial killer, which would have been cliche in its own way but would have bene interesting. If I'm remembering correctly there's definitely a slight implication that it could have gone that way with Tim showing up at murder scenes just after and being unsure how he got there.
You know what I would’ve liked to see? A film based on The Steven King short story of the same name. A story of a father’s grief and guilt over not being able to protect his children from the monster in the closet that seems to just keep coming back with the sole purpose of tormenting him. The narrative structure of the entire story being something he’s recounting to his therapist is a good storytelling device, especially when you get to the very end and are hit with the twist.
*Know a "bad" movie that needs a re-evaluation? Let me know in the comments!*
Go to expressvpn.com/ryan and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free!
Sponsored by ExpressVPN.
Another horror movie from 2005 that should get a second four evaluation is the movie Venom. Not the Marvel one.
Please cover the differences between Lord of Illusions the Director's Cut and the mangled incomprehensible mess they put out i. Theater and TV! The director and writer's cut is a Different movie!
The Exorcist 2.
Review
The Phantoms
Pi
Angel Heart
eXistenZ
I know they're not bad, but I'd love to see your take on either The Frighteners or Tales From The Crypt presents: Demon Knight. Love your videos, keep up the great work! 😁
I find the gimmick with the creature taking on the forms of stuff around the victim's home and destroying those will hurt the creature like horcruxes to be really clever
Shadows at night that you think look like monsters actually becoming them, fantastic idea
Right? I used to be afraid to go into the living room at night because the VCR had this "cute" sleep mode face like =°.°= and I definitely convinced myself it was a rat king. I would STILL love to smash that thing.
Yeah though it makes it more disappointing that they ended up with the final form. They couldn't just turn off the lights in a room and think of a scary looking thing they see?
Boogey Man, Darkness Falls, Dead Silence, all fall in the "great concept, questionable execution" category for me
I think of them all when one pops into my head for this exact reason lol
I felt like that with the movie the superdeep, the idea and the creature SUPER cool but the acting was abysmal and the dialogue from that movie sounded like one long NPC conversation.
I really like Dead Silence and I was scare as hell of Darkness Falls as a child
I wonder how much of the questionable execution was down to studio/exec interference.
Darkness Falls is the only one of those I hated, but those other two at least had a passion behind their ideas.
Idk if it was just because I was a kid, but this movie really got to me. Great analysis! Glad to see Boogeyman get some coverage
Monster in the closet is pretty good. I think, I was 9 when I watched it.
What are you doing here cuestar?!
Holy shit, didn't think I'd see Cuestar here
Oh shit did not expect to see one of my fav RUclipsrs in the comment section
Hey Cue! 😘
I think that a movie that tackles the idea of how diverse the myth of the Boogeyman can be and features a monster that appears differently to different people and functions under different rules, kills in different ways and has different weaknesses, depending on who interacts with it would be fun. Maybe one person grew up thinking that the Boogeyman lived under the bed and dragged people into a shadowy dimension from under the bed with its long arms but it couldn't grab you if no part of your body touched the ground, maybe another character grew up thinking that the Boogeyman can't find them under their sheets, making them effectively invisible as well as unable to see an otherwise unstoppable monster that's so terrifying that the sight of it would drive that person mad enough to gouge their own eyes out and die screaming bloody murder. There are so many fun and interesting ideas such a story could explore if it didn't go for the safest and the most generic option
"The boggey man can teleport between closets..."
Literally Monster's Inc except horror and told through the eyes of children traumatized by random furry creatures coming out of their closets.
In the sequels we learn that Boogeyman was actually part of a large company and his colleagues start worrying when they don't see him show up to work. So they send a rescue team.
because both are based on common, international concept of monster in the closet known for generations. Literally Boogeyman here can appear in top 3 places kids afraid monster to be. All you need more is belief that it can't go outside underbed if kid has foot covered with blanket and arms on a bed instead of hanging below
LMAO
@@gabymerman9005 I'm gonna tell everyone this, just so they watch an awful horror and waste 1 hour 39 if their time
So high school
Stephen King's short story about The Boogeyman is definitely one of his scariest stories in my book. It's told from the perspective of a guy (who is kind of a jerk) in denial that a supernatural, monstrous being has murdered his children. It focuses more on adult fear than child fear, which is probably what makes the story work, but it does specifically invoke that the kids know exactly what's hunting them, and that the man's inability to admit the Boogeyman is real is his fatal flaw. He can't tap into the child-like fear that would have ultimately saved his children. It's also NOT "monster as metaphor" (for the most part, anyway) but more like "the world is full of random, terrible things that will target you" and in this case it happens to be the Boogeyman.
I'd love to see the story adapted (I think it got a small one in an anthology series?) as a full-length feature. If Hereditary got the fear of "death of a child" right, imagine how horrific it could be for three of them?
Right? I listened to the audio of that and it was terrifying. I thought this movie was gonna be that....then I realized it wasn't....same with lawnmower man, but I knew better than to watch that one.
You're in luck, its coming next year en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boogeyman_(2023_film)
I think that they were adapting that story, but I don't know if they completed it.
Should've called John Wick
Will look this up ty. Same title?
Not gonna lie a horror movie about the Literal Boogeyman did actually sound intriguing to me and it would've been cool to see it explored.
Literal boogeyman 🧐nope it can’t be literal as it doesn’t exist. Look up the word literal❗️
Peace and happiness from Dublin Eire 🇮🇪🕊✌🏻
@@CashelOConnolly they capitalised Literal, so it's not "literal", it's "Literal", as in either a title or as taken exactly from the text or description of the Boogeyman and adapted exactly as such. Cheers :)
I found this movie can be quite interesting. I feel like he was going back to his childhood home to face his fears in order to become a adult. Plus, any chance to see Lucy Lawless on the screen is great.
If some elements were handled better and corporate suits didn't get in the way, this movie could've been a good psychological horror. Not the best or the most original, but good.
It’s a weird and messy film. When i was a kid it scared me. Then when i revisited it as a more cynically snobbish teenager i only perceived it as rubbish with horrible cgi and nothing else. Now after revisiting it i now thing it’s an interesting idea with some neat things going for it, terribly executed and i think it’s a funny thing that the cinematography at times looks like a Marilyn Manson music video
I'm an A24 fanboy, but you're spot on with the whole "elevated horror" point. Great video as always Ryan! I'll have to rewatch this one now lol.
The one reason I found A24 horror a fresh breath of air is because horror is seen as a cheap and easy movie to make if it's your first film which furthers the narrative that horror is poor filmmaking. It's not true of course, but until A24 and Jordan Peele started making well written and gorgeous horror people now see it as a style, or another way to tell a story. So I am excited to see what kind of stuff we next.
I'll also be glad to stop trying to pretend I enjoyed my friends cheap horror movies they made out of film school.
@@xalanii couldn't have said it better. Until then I felt most American horror was not that well done. There were some gens but for my person taste in horror I ended up enjoying the atmosphere and psychology of horror from Spanish -speaking and Asian filmmakers more.
I disagree. Whatever you want to call it, it is undoubtable that there are certain films (often but not always by A24) that just have a more artistic approach. Think genre lit vs Nobel prize material. It affects the style of the film and often also the intended audience.
This does not necessarily mean that one is better than the other. But saying that they're exactly the same and there is no need to differentiate between them is kind of ridiculous, for the specific reason that they tend to cater to different audiences. Concepts such as "elevated horror" arise BECAUSE people see a difference in category and people enjoy labeling different categories, so we can find more stuff we like. Obviously the line between the two categories isn't absolute, there are many films that would be difficult to classify as either one or the other, but that doesn't make the labels themselves useless. They have a function for a lot of people, is essentially my point.
@@xalanii I'm glad we're getting these unconventional and arthouse horror movies, but I don't like the term "elevated horror". It's really pompous and condescending because it suggests that these movies hover above the genre, like we've been waiting this entire time for someone to make horror a "serious genre". Horror has been tackling psychological themes and human drama for literal centuries, in cinema at least since The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and The Phantom Carriage.
@@viljamtheninja Arthouse Horror is definitely the better term, less pretentious but the films ARE different. How often do we hear about people new to A24 see an A24 fic and then bounce off the film entirely because it doesn't jive with what their notion of horror is.
This movie scared me so much as a kid. I couldn’t even look at the vhs cover for it lol.
Did they still make VHS at that point?
seeing footage from this movie has opened up memories of yet another creature-from-the-dark film called They (2002). The similarities are palpable, except that the blank canvas protagonist is a woman. What I distinctly remember from this film is the twist ending, which does a much better job of rolling off the beaten path into supernatural territory. If you have the mental to survive yet another early 2000's horror trope movie, you might find it enjoyable in its own right. It's also quite difficult to find, from my limited attempts at researching it.
Oh i think I remember that one it was pretty cool
Are you talking about the one where (SPOILERS)
where the woman and her two children are actually the ones haunting the house after the mom had a meltdown and killed everyone? If so, I agree completely that one was pretty cool
@@rockhistoria2537 The movie you're thinking of is "The Others (2001)" staring Nicole Kidman.
Agreed, that is a pretty good movie.
It's on Amazon Prime, premium members.
Commenting for the algorithm gods... I remember really enjoying They... I would be very interested to see the difference Ryan's take on it
this era of "scary" movies are so cozy to me now. i can watch this darkness falls and the fog as a fun triple feature like house on haunted hill, the haunting and ghost ship
Oh man, I remember watching this with my parents while I was in middle school and I found it terrifying. I also remember watching White Noise in middle school and being terrified! I was the type of kid to change the channel when a commercial for a scary movie came on lol
😁...DAMN...THE COMMERCIAL FOR...BEYOND THE DOOR...🧟
I appreciate the call-outs against "elevated horror." I only recently became aware that's a thing people are calling horror movies that they don't want to have to defend liking, since saying you like a horror movie is apparently a faux pas.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the alternate ending where it's revealed that the boogeyman was just an alternate identity and he was the one who killed those around him.
Its abandoned in the sequels the 3 movies feel like different movies jammed together
@@darkbladetri i fuckin hated the 2nd one. It actually pissed me off.
@@kato093 Ya didnt like the second film. But i really like #3.
@@cleduc5059 idk...i haven't watched it cuz i didn't even know it existed cuz it's like a super cheap straight to dvd horror movie
@@kato093 Very true. When i was a kid i found all three of them in a clearance bin at a Vons.
The thing about "elevated horror" is that it has the same problem as Oscar bait films, in that it's often dull, empty, and more concerned about ideas than plot. No sensible person wants their horror to be obnoxious, of course, but that doesn't mean that we should fixate on mood and atmosphere to the point of nothing happening seeing as that's obviously boring.
Yeah A24 for me isn't really elevated horror. It's just what I've seen before just more artsy and commercial. But I appreciate the work and love it went into them. I'll stick to my 2000s horror .
Ryan,
the best part of stanning this amazing channel for five years is watching you become more and more comfortable in your own skin, dude. We all celebrate you and thank you.
I hope you dont stop doing these for to long man. I was so big into these cheesy early 2000's horror movies and I loved them, you're like the only guy who gives not totally negative reveiws and just talks about movies I haven't seen in years. Always makes me smile when you cover another one!
While they're not bad movies, per se, I'd love your take on The Strangers: Prey at Night or The Empty Man.
The empty Man is a GREAT choice
@@adamstrangelove1081 First ballot Hall of Fame example of a trailer not being about the movie and almost ruining it.
@@harrisonlee9585 you mean a trailer that doesn't spoil the movies third act and twists? Not trying to correct you. Legitimately curious as I didn't watch any if the trailers but already know about the movie.
@@alwaysxnever Wasn't even that. The first trailer made Empty Man look like some sort of cliché in the shadows monster movie instead of a slow burn cosmic horror piece.
@@harrisonlee9585 damn. To be expected. Can't sell a slow burn to the masses at least that is the consensus. Glad you dug the films despite it.
As an “elevated Horror” lover and defender, you’re right about us 😂
Also I will say, I didn’t remember much of “Boogeyman” from watching it as a kid but Boogeyman 2 is better, with a better twist and payoff and one I revisit for nostalgia sake every now and then.
I truly never saw that twist coming, specially after watching boogeyman
I actually like the dark, corny style of this movie! Reminded me of the older seasons of supernatural, which I have a lot of nostalgia for.
That’s actually a really apt comparison, given that Boogeyman was written by Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural.
@@ashethedragon2761 I know Eric Kripke was involved in the both of them. I was like an Eric Kripke super fan when I was 14. I thought the man was a creative genuis haha! I don't know if you've ever watched his show Revolution, but I thought it was a masterpiece 😀
@@lilyiolly1390 Oh yeah, I watched Revolution. Don't know if I ever thought it was a masterpiece but I definitly enjoyed it and was sad when it got cancelled. Honestly I've been thinking about his filmography a lot lately as I just started watching the Boys and I had to remind myself that that's also him.
@@ashethedragon2761 I'm not sure what I'd think of Revolution if I watched it now. But when I watched it when I was 11 or 12, I adored that show! Honestly Kripke's style may be a little cheesy at times, but the guy is definitely creative and takes risks!
@@lilyiolly1390 I completely agree, he's got some wild ideas and really knows how to just go for it. It also helps that the cheese is the endearing kind, it just makes it all fun, even if not objectively good. I definitly don't regret watching anything he's made, it's usually enjoyable in some way. Execution may not always be perfect but he's got some cool ideas and I appreciate that.
That bird hitting the windshield SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME when i first watched this movie as a kid!
The one "Boogieman" - like creature that really works for me is the Babadook. I really enjoy that creature's design and it totally looks like I always imagined "Mr. Shleppel", the Boogieman from the Discworld novel "Reaper man". Who is rather friendly and terribly shy and never goes out, until someone has the idea that he could carry a door to hide behind with him. Near the end of the book some of his friends are in danger, which finally causes him to drop the door... And what's behind it is quite a dangerous beast as it turns out. He's never described in any detail, we only learn that he can turn into a huge, black thing and is pretty strong, so the reader has to make up his own looks. And when I first saw Babadook I was like "THAT'S MISTER SHLEPPEL!!!!". :D
Yeah that one shot where it was just a coat and hat in the background (and the fact that that's all it stems from) is so eerily compelling. And I did find it scary because being possessed into murdering your own child or being murdered by your mother is a fate scary in its own way
I think the problem with this film and why it gets a bad rap is because the thing it does well is show the main character's psychological struggle with fear, anxiety, and a sense of unreality and especially at the time what people were looking for and expecting from a horror film called 'Boogeyman' was a creature feature. Like people just wanted this film to be another 'Jeepers Creepers', and when it wasn't everyone just buried their memory of it and chiseled 'Bad' on the headstone.
Okay, here's my other thoughts. The boogeyman was an interesting concept, because originally the boogeyman was not supposed to be a literal monster. It was supposed to be that he was a child when his father died there was childhood trauma I believe his uncle was the one who attacked his parents, but as a kid he could not come to grips with it and it transformed in his mind into imagery based on his what was in his bedroom. At the climax of the film, he comes to grips with the fact that there was no Supernatural element, it was something. I think his father killed kids or his uncle or something. I don't remember, I used to have the DVD and I watch the bonus features and looked into it.
This film is actually more of an indicator early on that American Cinema was going to be designed entirely by committee. When he aired his psychological drama film to the executives, they were annoyed and confused because the movie was called Boogeyman but there was no actual Boogeyman in the movie. They felt that if you did not put an actual Boogeyman in the film moviegoers would be just as confused as well. That's why the wind the boogeyman does show up at the end of the film it is a very very bad even for its time CGI monstrosity. The film had been done the wrapping up have been done and they had to go back and put in some CGI monster simply because some Executives could not understand the concept that the movie could be called something and it wasn't literally in the film.
So to that end, I enjoyed watching the film because I like watching train wrecks and then seeing what the history was behind them. This is only in my mind link to the babadook in that does have that same basic theme and if he have been allowed to produce the film the way he originated it probably would be a fair comparison. Garbage film however.
That is _exactly_ what happened with the production of this movie.
Boogeyman was literally the first horror movie I ever saw. I was 19, had just purchased a blockbuster card, and in a spirit of rebellion against my parents who were very anti-horror, I rented the first horror movie that I came across. This film was my introduction to the genre and as flawed as it was in retrospect, it introduced me to so many classic tropes ('shes been dead the entire time', 'the toys represent the monster', 'doors slowly opening are bad news', 'these films dont have happy endings', 'dark areas are baaad, man') that now, 14 years later, I've seen a million times over, and I love them so very much. I'll always have a soft spot for this movie because it was my first 'horror film'. Still my favorite genre, always will be. Thanks for covering this Ryan, what a lovely trip down nostalgia lane.
My day be so fine, then BOOM, ryan shows clips of the grudge lady which i have a deep primal fear of
Having only caught part of this on a cable channel at one point when I was a young boy who was scared of his own shadow, that scene where the father gets pulled into the closet stuck with me mentally. If I remember correctly, he's on the floor and says "Don't tell your mother" before he gets dragged in for the last time. Scared the hell out of me.
Concept for this looks neat though, I think I'll check it out on one of my random horror nights eventually just to get my own feel for it.
Only thing I remember from this movie was the 'key inserted into the lock' shot which I still think is pretty cool.
This movie is the reason why Supernatural TV show exist and for that, I am thankful.
Wait really?
Listening to Ryan Hollinger feels like sitting in front of a warm fire with a blankey and soup in a cabin at night. Very comfy but yknow we're still discussing horror
My mind was blown at the revelation that the boogeyman can teleport when I was a kid. I was a huge fan of superpowers like teleportation at the time, so it immediately made it a really good movie for me.
I will never forget the classic Canadian kids show "You Can't Do That on Television" did a skit called the boogeyman. Classic horror premise: A kid is sitting terrified in his bed, and a man dressed in his disco finery comes dancing into the room.
after watching this movie as a kid I never called my parents when I was scared cause I didn't want them to be taken by my creepy ass closet lol
I watched this movie as a kid and I remember nothing about it outside of a scene where the main character picks up a dead crow from a windshield.
I watched this movie a bunch of times when I was younger, and the main thing I always remember is how it helped learn how locks work.
Videos like this are a good reminder that everything deserves at least a little reevaluation.
Boogeyman and Dead Silence occupy exactly the same space in my head, right next to that tooth fairy one.
7:10 Well I never
I love the A24 “elevated horror” movies, but i completely agree with your take.
I actually remember enjoying Boogeyman 2 more than the first as a teenager.
2000's American horror films, for the most part, were meant to be crowd-pleasing fun movies with spooks and chills. Roller-coasters, essentially. Sometimes they had moments of depth that added to their context, but overall, they were thrill-rides. In light of the horror movies we're bombarded with now where every single one is trying to attack the viewer and society and tell them they're evil, I miss this era. The last recent horror movie I saw, I believe, was Underwater, which captured that same vibe, and I thought it was great.
My fondest memory of seeing this movie as a kid is "Falling Home" by Noisehead playing at the end-credits. It felt like a great tone to end on as the Boogeyman is finally conquered and Tim's earned a second chance to truly move forward with his life.
He followed his way back home where this childhood trauma began, faced the monster + his own demons, and came out the other side a better person. While he couldn't save past victims like his dad or Franny, he at least saved Kate and himself.
Now, feeling hope for the first time, he lets light shine through that old window into his childhood bedroom where oppressive darkness & bad memories had long dominated. His trauma will always be part of him, but he's no longer a prisoner to it.
And since Kate's also gained a deeper understanding of what he's been through, he's not alone in his trauma anymore. Whatever does or doesn't happen between them from here, Tim has found someone who can identify with his experience.
From a more psychological POV, the ending could also be perceived as symbolizing him letting the light back into his long darkened mind and soul. After fixating his whole life on this fear that haunted him, he's freed himself of his obsession at last.
I think part of why this film resonated with me despite the plot, acting and effects being thoroughly mediocre in my opinion (even for 2005) is because the creature & personal conflict can be interpreted in multiple ways (Ex- Dealing with addiction).
Thing about The Babadook is that he really was real. He was a tulpa boogeyman created by Amelia's own trauma and he was trying to drive her into hurting her son which is a lot scarier then the monster of the film doing hence the execution of that film
Never heard of this movie before seeing your video on it, might be fun to do a 2000s horror marathon of some of the films you’ve covered recently on the channel
I just remember when I was little and saw the posters/dvd cover of this with the arm reaching out of the door at my local Family Video or Dollar General, the image horrified me. It didn’t help that the Boogeyman from WWE also scared me lol.
thank you for that elevated horror take
This film is the reason why I had night terrors for years, I’m still skittish around closets lmao
I never sword this boogeyman but I saw boogeyman 2 on TV late at night when I was 9 and it truly did elevate my fear of the dark for a long time, hope you cover it 1 day.
I appreciate you mentioning The Empty Man at the end. Whether anybody likes it or not, it deserves to be seen.
Before my family had cable or internet (that wasn't dial-up), movies like Boogeyman were our Friday night fright rental. I remember this, The Messengers & The Darkness (2002).
The boogeyman is probably the most hyped urban legend ever imo there's so many variations of the boogeyman!
I'm not sure it even qualifies as an "urban legend". It's not really specific enough. It's more a catch-all category for every variation of children's fears about darkness and the unknown in general, however that manifests.
I think there's something of interest to be found in an exploration of how and why children begin to develop those fears. It's sorta the dark side of imagination; when you can create wondrous fantasies, you can create terrifying ones, as well, and almost inherently do the latter when you do the former. Call it a permutation of Hugh Laurie's (yes, that one) Laws of Thermodynamics of Conversation (found in his excellent and overlooked comedic spy novel, "The Gun Seller"): "Every statement implies an equal and opposite statement."
More of a mythologized personification of our fears of the unknown as children. There's a reason why for some kids it's under the bed, others it's in the closet, others it's in the walls, others it's in the ceiling. Creepy sound creaking up the stairs when nobody should be awake? Well that's definitely the boogeyman! It's often used kinda like Krampus in order to spook children into behaving in some particular way as well.
Until we see horror movies being recognized and win academy awards, I'm certainly never using the word "elevated horror" as if it means something.
In the end, it's all subjective.
I had this on DVD, it was one of my first forays into the horror genre as a kid!
I actually kinda liked this movie; it’s not a movie that I love more for the background like Thirt13n Ghosts, it’s not a movie I can say I have a history with like The Messengers, it’s not a guilty pleasure but a bizarre pleasure-the film equivalent of dipping Wendy’s fries in your Frosty. You shouldn’t like it, nothing says it should work, but it works.
To me, this movie is like that weird friend you had in middle school: you don’t think about them a lot, but whenever they’re brought up, you remember all the good times you had and just feel a wave of nostalgia.
I still remember being terrified of the dvd covers of the boogeyman movies when I would walk past them in blockbuster
I took that the missing kids the boogie man took were the children that either were kidnapped or killed and never found, which is also a fear of strangers and being lost kids have.
This is one of those films I've seen, but only remember when it's described to me.
I have to say though (hoyever), my oldest had a fever induced hallucination at around age 3, where he saw a man standing behind my bedroom door.
Being woke by a screaming child in the middle of the night, and the light from the hallway falling perfectly on the opened door, led to me cowering in my bed, clutching my child, and questioning reality. Because, while I knew it was an illusion, I also knew why I never look out of windows when it's dark out, or linger too long by the edge of the bed...
So many horror movies from this period had such a distinct feel to them, I don't know if it was the janky cgi or the Ju-on influences or what but it's a very special thing, even if most of them were quite silly. On the subject of "bad" films you might be interested in covering, and at risk of you having done so already, there's this one film I remember very distinctly called "The Shrine," from 2010 - plays out a bit like they only had the effects budget to afford one big spooky gargoyle statue as a prop and based a whole story around it that I personally found pretty interesting, if a little rough.
I really liked the 'Reeker' shout out/comparison. I remember watching as a kid like 10 years ago and it's a film that's always stuck with me from the cool death, twists throughout and the big reveal at the end, definitely due a rewatch to see how much of it holds up
Same! I've actually been racking my brain the past couple of years being vaguely reminded of that film but could never remember the name, just the creepy sounds and presence of the creature in it. I just rewatched it here on youtube and It doesn't exactly hold up to the terror it gave me as a kid, but it's a better than average horror flick, and it's definitely unique I'd say.
Oh man, it's so great that you're doing a video on this one. I forgot it existed until now, which is funny because as a kid, before I got into horror movies, the trailer and even just the DVD box art scared me so bad I couldn't sleep.
This movie used to scare the shit out of me, not from the actual movie itself cause I never saw it but from the promotional poster. I had gone to a friends house after seeing a movie when I was a kid and in the theatre I distinctly remember seeing a poster for The Boogeyman, it terrified me, a dark blue hand silently opening up a kids closet door at dusk when all is even quieter? That shits horrifying when you’re little! When we got home it was dusk and we ran up to his room and noticed that his closet was exactly the same as the one in the poster, same color, same door, same way of opening…and it was slightly open…we turned on the tv to try and forget about it and as soon as we turn it on a tv promo for the film popped up and I remember clearly seeing the ghost kids all reaching out to the guy in the middle…I went home and cried myself to sleep thinking the actual boogeyman had come out of my friends closet and was following me…waiting to send his children after me…sometimes the minds scarier than the actual movie
Cannot express the information my brain is able to take in about movies. Love your videos they constantly keep informed and intrigued
Great video! I really appreciate you covering all these 2000s movies, I love them.
I really liked this movie because it made me think of MY Boogyman or rather, Boogy dinosaur. (My parents took me to see Jurassic Park and I had nightmares of the Raptors coming to eat me.) Then it made me think of others boogeyman. Later in supernatural I learned of the Tulpas. Beings that are created by the manifested thoughts of others. So it is just interesting to think of that sort of thing. Plus I actually get this and Darkness falls mixed up. It was the darkness falls in always staying in the light and the removing of the doors of the cabinets and the like. When you think about it, these two movies do have a lot of similarities.
Your "hoyever" brings me joy. Like, literal warm feeling in my heart. Thank you for being you.
Ironically, "To hell if I'm ever gonna watch them" is exactly what was said by the writers of the sequels when asked about the movies that came before theirs
Interesting you mention Reeker, because I always get that confused with another direct-to-video horror from around the same time called Rest Stop. They share similar isolated desert locations and ambiguous, purgatorial vibes. But whereas Reeker lifts its big rug-pull twist directly from 2003’s Dead End, Rest Stop leaves everything an incomprehensible puzzle where there’s clearly something supernatural going on but there’s also a human serial killer (or killers) somehow connected to it. There’s a 2008 sequel I vaguely remember watching, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it.
I will NEVER get tired of Ryan’s narration of horror films
As I become a bigger horror fan, you have quickly become one of my favorite channels on RUclips. Keep up the amazing work Ryan!
I remember another Boogeyman movie back from the 80s-90s. Not the 1982 version, but a more comedy driven film.
All I can really remember from it is: The family finds glowing green footprints on all the walls of the bathroom. No-one is frightened or shocked, and the father even peels some prints off the wall and cover himself in them.
Why are the awesome movies never remade or remastered?
I remember watching this around 2007-2008 (I was around 15-16 at the time and in my country's version of high school) with some of my friends at a movie night - we watched it as the first one because it was said to be a horror movie and non of us wanted to get too scared - when the kids showed up on screen in what I assume was supposed to be a very tense and scary moment one of my friends yelled something along the lines of "They're smurfs!". Everyone started laughing and we couldn't take the movie seriously after that. It's a bad movie (even though it's quite good at establishing tension and how the main character's mind works in some scenes and little details - like how the main character doesn't own any closets but has all his clothes hanging out in the open) but because of the fond memories I have of it, it holds a special place in my heart :)
I like what you said about hiding you're anxiety and fear behind smiles. Because I've pretty much became a professional at it , not by choice but necessity.
In the mid 2000's there were a lot of Ghost House / LionsGate horror flicks that weren't memorable but worth watching. I've never heard of "Reeker" so that's on my list now. Thanks Ryan.
When I saw the title I thought it was the 1980's "The Boogey Man" flick. This movie is also worth a watch. It's about a little girl who, through the reflection in a mirror, witnesses her brother killing their mother's abusive lover. Then the mirror gets possessed by the dark twisted soul of this man and haunts them into adulthood.
I was terrified of this movie when it came out in middle school.
I think the first 5 minutes of Scream 5 sum up my feelings on the idea of "elevated horror"
When I was a child I had to spend hours in the car with my dad doing nothing, and to pass the time he would tell me the stories of horror movies he watched (maybe that's why now I enjoy this type of videos even more than watching the actual movies). This is one that for some reason really stuck with me, I though it was the scariest thing ever. We didn't rent movies often, and one day this movie was on tv, we were so excited to watch it, sadly it was already during the ending part, and to make things even more intense there was a HUGE thunderstorm, so the cable signal was awful. I remember so vividly the scene with the flashing light as the image came and go on the screen, i was terrified lol Now I know it isn't nearly as scary as i've believed all these years, but still, it was a story that started my love for horror.
this is one of my mom's favorite horror movies! still scares her each rewatch lol
2:28 Thank You Ryan for Mentioning The Tall Man Via Image!
The opening to this movie really stuck with me as a kid. Gave me nightmares for years
I love this movie. It's effects may be dated, but it's message is timeless.
Ryan, I would suggest you watch the CryptTV Horror shorts. Insane level quality from an indie studio.
When I was a little, I thought the boogeyman was a shambling mound of snot with a bowler hat, like "Cousin It" made of bogeys.
“Oh nothing Ryan just a little incident involving the bogeyman” *gun goes off
Disney had a boogeyman movie that I found genuinely terrifying as a kid. The makeup for the movie was really good
The fact that Eric Kripke the dude who wrote Supernatural also wrote the story for this film makes me wish it had just been a script for the earlier seasons of Supernatural. They had strong horror vibes back in the day.
10:25 Woah. That was a genuinely cool shot!
I saw this and darkness falls on home video around the same time as a kid and to this day still get them mixed up.
Boogeyman (2005) and its two sequels will always stick out to me purely for the number of times I saw their covers during my frequent browsing's of the Wal-Mart DVD shelves when I was a kid. 😆💀
The Boogieman in German is called "Der schwarze Mann" (The Black Man) and is just another "you better behave" Tool for parents.
It is a popular game for children where one child is the "Boogieman" and yells "Who is affraid of the Boogieman" towards other children, wich reply "Noone" the one child ask then "And when He comes?" the other children answere "we run!" than they run towards the one child and if it touches you, you become another Boogieman.
Not so fun-fact:
1992 - 2001 there was a RL Boogieman in Germany. He molestet over 40 children in that Time...broke into Camps, tents and houses...
He never said a thing beside "If you scream, I will kill you" and "It's almost over."
Most disturbingly, he worked with children during the day...
I would love it if you could talk more about creature features since they tend to be some of my favorite horror films
I was jump scared at 6:33 thinking the ring was my fire alarm while I was cooking lol
Fantastic. I got nothing to do at work currently and Ryan uploads a video. Great day
I hate the term "elevated horror" because it also just carries this implication that Horror is inherently some lesser, unsophisticated genre, and ugly duckling of cinema that has to somehow prove itself to be something genuinely good. Horror doesn't get enough respect, and that is hella annoying.
I'm only at the beginning of the video, but the story summary kind of reminds me of the dark romanticism novel The Sandman, wich is about a guy who is trying to cope with his childhood trauma from a weird boogeyman type figure that traumatized him as a child and probably killed his father. The story later evolves into being more about the main guy falling in love with an automat named olimpia and also going insane along the way, but it is similar...
I remember that intro terrifying me. The way the entity rose from the coat, along with the musical cue.... yeah I shit mapants.
Movies like this are incredibly nostalgic for me
I do think this is movie is a little underrated, don't get me wrong it's bad, but I often bring it up as an example of a story that nearly works but keeps falling just short. Personally I think it would have been a lot stronger if it had turned out the Boogeyman wasn't real and Tim was a serial killer, which would have been cliche in its own way but would have bene interesting. If I'm remembering correctly there's definitely a slight implication that it could have gone that way with Tim showing up at murder scenes just after and being unsure how he got there.
You know what I would’ve liked to see? A film based on The Steven King short story of the same name. A story of a father’s grief and guilt over not being able to protect his children from the monster in the closet that seems to just keep coming back with the sole purpose of tormenting him. The narrative structure of the entire story being something he’s recounting to his therapist is a good storytelling device, especially when you get to the very end and are hit with the twist.