Boogeyman II (1983)
Directed by Bruce Starr (Ulli Lommel)
VCII VHS
THE FILM
Mom, don't read this next line...This movie is full of balls. A ballful film. A film that is one big "F You" to Hollywood and producers and everyone who makes movies and just cares about making cash. Granted, that's most folks. Moviemaking is a business. And, a sequel is, generally, more of the same formula that made money once. When it isn't (Back To The Future II), you can wind up with a lot of confused people.
From what I gather, Ulli Lommel did everything he could to not make a sequel to The Boogeyman. But, when the time came to do it, he took the "more of the same" very literally. And, of course, we have one of the classic "reuse footage from the first film" sequels. And, the film never lets us forget that it is just replaying the highlights from the first film and doing the bare minimum to be an actual film in its own right.
Lacey goes to Hollywood. She stays with a friend from her home town who is now living with a foreign director (played by Mr. Lommel). The director is slowly being forced to turn his latest art-house picture into a piece of tawdry exploitation. The couple also seems to have a child. I say "seem to" because she is purely there to remind Lacey of when she was a child and trigger her mind back to the past. The child, in the end, has nothing to do with anything and, in fact, I can't even remember if they establish the child's relationship to everyone else.
It's a fascinating film that is very easy to respect but a little tough to watch. You can feel the contempt when you watch it. Not just for the producers and Hollywood, but for us. The viewers who tune in to see nothing but more senseless killing and pointless scares is laughed at too by being forced to watch a frustrating repeat of a movie that never becomes satisfying. A movie that never cares about anyone. It is a "contractual obligation" made into art.
The killings in The Boogeyman seemed rather strange to me. They seemed very contrived and included almost as an afterthought. Well, Boogeyman II definitely does not include them as an afterthought because this would be the main reason why the film was being made. However, they are constructed and shot as if they were afterthoughts in a series of strange little vignettes.
The bulk of the new killings occur to (upon?) the rather grotesque folks at the director's party. They are filmed at low angels and in strange distortions and with fly-eye multiplications. They are all awful and they all die in ways that are, frankly, hysterical. The shaving cream and the garden hose murders crack this Polack up. The tailpipe killing always frightened me a bit. It's so very odd. I can hear Ulli laughing behind the camera.
The way the film is carried out is completely honorable, in its own way. But, I do notice that every once in a while Ulli inserts a little side commentary (the Brian DePalma bit or the Hollywood Babylon bit) that seem a little off. He's doing enough with the characters, the story structure (it is exactly the same as the first one but it never sort of sets itself up, the film just is and then it ends) and the laziness of all the scares. The little asides seem a bit much to me. But, they are only small moments.
I do wonder what the producers/ distributors thought when they saw it. I also wonder what people thought when they saw it in the theater. And, poor VCII...after all their pre-movie previews, there is a black screen...then it says "Boogeyman II...Available Now" as the heartbeat from the film thumps away. Were they hilariously confused too?
(I did buy the Boogeyman 2: Director's Cut DVD when it came out. And, it is the logical conclusion of "make the same film again". If you haven't seen it, you need to watch this first and then that. It's not something you can watch a second time. But, it is very interesting.)
AUDIO AND VIDEO
I'm watching the VCII VHS. It looks great in a scuzzy way. And, I love that soundtrack.
EXTRAS
The ten minutes of previews and stuff that VCII puts in front of a bunch of their tapes. An ad for their blank tapes. A preview for Talk Of The Town. A series of revolving videotape covers. It's good stuff.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Boogeyman II is a very special movie. And, most folks who watch will get royally cheesed off. I like it but I can't watch it often. Well done, Ulli.
— Dan Budnik, 03.04.10 |
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