not horrible nor great

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Perhaps I was just in an extraordinary good mood or maybe my level of tolerance for low-budget horror movies became a lot more flexible over the years, but I honestly enjoyed "Legend of the Boogeyman" … I also have a strange and inexplicable affiliation for the works of director Jeffery Scott Lando. He's not exactly considered to be a prodigy horror director, but I count his "Savage Island" and "Decoys 2" among my guilty pleasures, and earlier this year I watched his latest movie "Suspension" at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and felt it was terrific (albeit derivative) late- night entertainment! "The Legend of Boogeyman" should also be seen as such… The script is flawed and contains quite a few holes, the acting performances are questionable and the attempts to generate suspense are underwhelming, but the titular creature (actually, never really referred to as the boogeyman) is pretty cool-looking, its background is relatively original and there's a fair amount of lightly digestible gore/bloodshed. There you, three negative aspects and three positive ones! The film tells the familiar tale of a couple of irritating teenagers that break into the ramshackle house of a local weirdo/hermit and accidentally release the hideous creature that was safely locked away in the attic. The monster promptly goes on a murderous rampage, but in fact there's more than meets the eye. He's not just a random brainless monster, but an ancient biblical figure on the lookout for a new brother to protect. He's got his rotten mind set on Jacob, the idiotic teen who released him from his attic jail, while the cute female law enforcer Rebecca senses a strong bloodline connection with the creature. "The Legend of Boogeyman" is unpretentious, never boring and features a large amount of massacres that are gory without ever getting repulsive or shocking. But the best thing about the film is undoubtedly the monster's make-up, as he sort looks like a hybrid between a zombie and a mummy.

When a series of strange deaths are apparent in a small town, the local authorities find them to be caused by a demon released that has a special connection to several of the residents and must stop its rampage before its target is found.This was a decent overall entry as this wasn't one that really has a lot of bad points but not one that's really overflowing with positives either. One of the better features here is the enjoyable pace, as it's got some nice action scenes spread throughout with the different confrontations here with several high-energy scenes including the great attack on the old man, a generally enjoyable massacre on the kids in the forest and a later attack on a neighbor that gets some chilling stalking including along with the actual kill which is quite brutal. The film's two biggest scenes, though, come from the house ambush where the phone calls let them on to what's happening early on, the bedroom encounter is chilling and the different gun-battles here bring the action as well as some creepy stalking in the house's hallways gives this some better scenes, and the later encounter in the father's shack is really fun with the chaos and panic of the abduction serving as the launching point for the myriad of fine stalking scenes out in the woods picking off the members one-by-one in chilling encounters, the confrontation in the attic is highly enjoyable with a lot of action streaming throughout here and the influx of the storyline ramifications gives this one some even more fun here with how this impacts the action. While there's also some fun to be had with the creature's history and back-story, which is pretty clever and quite unique in and of itself because of what it signifies and how it's done here to link together both its appearance in the story as well as the connection to the human stories, it's got enough to really like here that gives this one some positive points against the film's big flaw. The problem here is basically a common grievance in having the one character who knows what's going on and how to stop it keep that information to themselves, forcing everyone else to deal with the situation without knowing what to do themselves. It's gradually apparent here that something's happening and there's little reason to think that would've been accepted and useful from what's happening, but rather it's all kept here that way instead. As well, the film's decision to handle the bullying aspect here is somewhat mishandled here as this spends quite a bit of time here setting it up only to drop it without really giving it any real purpose at all, since it doesn't really have any point in helping them overcome the creature, none of the bullying provides the strength to battle it later and the creature never gives them any kind of comeuppance or even accidental revenge as it just drops the thread altogether which makes such a questionable and controversial angle to have been included at all. Along with some usual atrocious CGI, these problems do affect it but overall it's pretty decent.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity, strong themes of bullying and children-in-jeopardy.

Most of the SyFy movies are either bad or bottom-of-the-barrel. There are a few tolerable ones out there, but they are too far and between. I'll start off to say that Boogeyman is not among SyFy's worst, and I didn't think it was a terrible film. It was one of those films that did have some promise but didn't live up to that. Boogeyman does start off decently, the idea was good and the beginning set a good atmosphere. The film does have a couple of good things beyond that, the monster effects for SyFy are not too bad, they are not great but much improved from most of the SyFy monsters I've seen. Plus, this monster actually is quite menacing, rather than being over or under-utilised and not doing all that much. Visually, it is not so bad either, I was expecting choppy editing and the like, and while there is some stiffness there is definitely much worse around. The scenery is sometimes basic, but does set a foreboding tone and has some authenticity. However, there are a lot of faults still. The acting is better than most SyFy movies, but is not great. The leads have some likability but the younger boy especially is awful. The way the characters are written doesn't help either, nobody stood out as likable, none of them are developed all that convincingly and some in places even had an over-the-top vibe. I was particularly annoyed by the police chief, her constant pep talks and huddle ups are enough to make anybody mad. I also disliked how the boys were made to look like idiots in some parts of the movie. The dialogue is likewise lame, it is very cheesy and little of it rings true. Disappointing also is the story, after a decent start it quickly turns into predictability and utter stupidity with nothing standing out as creepy, suspenseful or convincing. The monster does elevate things, but the aimless exposition and the bland build-ups hamper the scenes with it in from being any more than they actually were. There are a couple of jolts, but little beyond that and I was often thinking "I've seen this all before... and done better". Further spilt by a rushed and rather contrived finale, Boogeyman is better than most SyFy movies and had potential but doesn't live up to it. 4/10 Bethany Cox

OK.. not REALLY a 10 when compared to "REAL" movies. But this bit of Syfy channel horror fluff had more than the usual amount of funny quips....The best:"Hey, I found my cell!"....There are quite a few more good lines.Not a bad bit of background entertainment while you're doing something else. Doesn't take much effort to watch with your peripheral attention, and when a line does catch your ear, a chuckle may follow.The characters were much more fully developed than what is typically found in these disposable scifi/horror shows. This also sets this movie apart than the norm.