Boogeyman

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Boogeyman's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Boogeyman completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 23 May 05.

Overall comments and recommendations

Boogeyman is a horror / psychological thriller, particularly targeting adolescents who are fans of the horror genre. The film contains intense sequences of horror and terror type violence, some disturbing images, adult themes, mild sexual references and a scene with partial nudity. From an adult perspective, the first twenty minutes of the film are by far the best; from then on it becomes repetitive, predictable and boring, not capable of sustaining suspense and with disappointing computer generated images.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Boogeyman contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Tim Jensen, an eight-year old boy, lives with his mother and father in a run-down Victorian Gothic house. One night he witnesses his father being violently taken, never to be seen again, by a Boogeyman who lives in his closet. Fifteen years later, Tim (Barry Watson) still suffers from a fear of closets. When he and his girlfriend Jessica (Tory Mussett), travel to his home town to go to his mother Mary's (Lucy Lawless) funeral, he is forced to confront his fears.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Boogeyman depicts a supernatural wraith-like being, which commits acts of psychopathic terror type violence. There are also scenes which imply multiple acts of child abduction and murder. Examples of violence include:

• As a child, Tim witnesses the Boogeyman violently attacking his father, leaping out of his closet, knocking him to the ground, brutally bashing him against the closet doorframe and then dragging him into the closet
• Tim watches an empty bathtub fill with muddy water. The next second, Jessica leaps up from under the muddy water gasping for air. As Tim tries to free her, the water transforms into the Boogeyman. The wraith engulfs a screaming Jessica and disappears into an adjoining closet. Tim's bloody hand print is left on the side of the bath.
• the Boogeyman drags Tim's Uncle Mike through a doorway with the uncle disappearing from sight. Several seconds later, the uncle is thrown back through the doorway wrapped in plastic from head to toe. Tim frantically tries to tear away the plastic from his uncle's mouth, but before he is able to do so, the Boogeyman drags Tim's uncle through a doorway, never to be seen again.
• the final violent confrontation between Tim and the Boogeyman involves Tim bashing the Boogeyman with a club while the Boogeyman throws Tim around the room and against walls.
• Tim runs through a park that is being searched by police looking for a missing child, implying that the Boogeyman has abducted the child.
• Tim is mobbed by dozens of zombie-like children who are all trying to touch or make contact with Tim. It is implied that the children had all been abducted and murdered by the Boogeyman.
• Tim is terrorised by his father, who in an attempt to cure Tim of his fear of closets, deliberately locks him in a small dark closet.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned scenes, the following could seriously frighten children under the age of eight:

• numerous haunting creepy type sounds, including: whispering voices, breezes blowing through the house, shaking tree branches, creaking doors and floorboards, etc.
• visual images that are both scary and creepy
• Tim's robe, which is draped across a chair back becomes filled with an invisible menacing form and starts to walk towards Tim
• Tim's mother appears in a zombie like form with rotting flesh and sunken eyes. She attacks Tim, slapping and poking him in the face
• Tim views his mother's body in a coffin when she opens her eyes, reaches a hand out and grabs hold of him.
• a crow crashes into the windscreen of Tim's car: Tim has to pull the crow's ruined body off the windscreen.
• numerous creepy images of shadowy figures flashing past doorways and hallways.
• Tim is surrounded by a room full of zombie looking children who have demon like eyes; the children crowd and press against Tim
• people are sucked and dragged into closets or under beds by wraith-like forces.
• invisible forces pull nails out of planks of wood and rip planks of wood from doorways
• the Boogeyman presented as a shadowy wraith-like apparition with rotting flesh, demon-like eyes and sharp pointy teeth.

Over the age of eight

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

All of the scary scenes described above, plus the associated sounds and images, could scare children and young adolescents between the ages of eight and fifteen years. Older children and adolescents would be better able to cope with the movie's visual images; in fact the computer generated image of the Boogeyman is not nearly as impressive as images in many of the films currently showing with a PG or M classification. However, the general creepiness of the film and the ‘boo in the dark' factor, is still more than capable of disturbing many young adolescents. Susceptible older adolescents could also be disturbed by the movie's content and themes.

Product placement

Reference to an alcoholic drink consisting of mixing Red Bull (a drink with a high caffeine content, widely advertised on TV) with Vodka.

Sexual references

The film contained a couple of implicit sexual references:

• Tim is staying at Jessica's parents' house and is made to sleep in a room alone. Jessica tells Tim that she will “sneak in latter and make it up to you”. Tim's reply is, “I'll put on something naughty”
• Later, when Jessica does sneak in to Tim's bedroom, he states, “I like this sneaking in thing—it's kind of dirty”.

Nudity and sexual activity

Partial nudity in one scene. Jessica decides to take a bath and removes all her clothes except for her underpants. Jessica's back is to the camera when she removes her underpants, the bottom of her legs is shown as she steps out of her underpants.

Use of substances

The film contains a couple of scenes depicting the consumption of alcohol:

• Tim and Jessica are at a party, the guests are drinking what appear to be cocktails and bottles of beer
• Tim makes a Vodka Red Bull (as above) for himself and Jessica, but the drinks are never consumed.

Coarse language

This film contains no coarse language.

The movie's message

Boogeyman is based on childhood fears of the dark, dark closets and the dark space under the bed. In this movie, these nightmarish fears turn out to be reality. The message is that an adult who still maintains these childhood fears, can find the strength to confront and defeat them. While this film is not recommended for children under the age of fifteen years, parents may wish to discuss with adolescents who do view the film any fears, or concerns they may have had when younger, or still maintain. They could discuss what helps them feel less afraid, and how they may be able do to confront those fears.