GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Boogeyman
Screen Gems Inc.

Boogeyman reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 32 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
3.6 out of 10
based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of horror and terror/violence, and some partial nudity

Starring Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Lucy Lawless, Tory Mussett, Robyn Malcolm, Charles Mesure, and Louise Wallace

In this chilling horror movie, Barry Watson stars as Tim, a young man who must return to his childhood home and confront the terrifying visions that have haunted him all his life. (Screen Gems)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Horror  |  Mystery  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Eric Kripke (also story)
Juliet Snowden
Stiles White
 
DIRECTED BY: Stephen T. Kay  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 31, 2005 
Theatrical: February 4, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA / New Zealand 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

70
Variety Joe Leydon
Trendy influence of insidiously creepy Japanese horror pics is felt in almost every frame of Boogeyman. The effectively atmospheric and unusually involving thriller tells the story of a distraught young man's protracted duel of wits with the eponymous evildoer.
Read Full Review
70
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Unexpectedly gripping horror movie.
Read Full Review
60
Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Director Stephen T. Kay (The Last Time I Committed Suicide) busts off some cool shots, and Eric Kripke's story is pretty sound until the finale. Worth a look for horror fans, but nothing classic.
Read Full Review
60
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
It suffers from a lack of genuine chills or suspense that renders its slight virtues rather moot.
Read Full Review
60
Film Threat Heidi Martinuzzi
This film does cause shivers, creeps, scares, and jumps. It may even make you scream a bit.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
An otherwise passable horror film that delivers more than enough cheap thrills to forgive the plot holes.
Read Full Review
40
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Has little to offer in the way of entertainment or originality.
Read Full Review
40
Empire Dan Jolin
An opportunity to exploit childhood nocturnal fears is missed in a second-rate horror.
Read Full Review
38
Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand
While stylishly filmed and edited, Boogeyman is filled with every imaginable fright cliche... It's like a meal consisting entirely of airy hors d'oeuvres.
Read Full Review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
A film willing to cheat whatever way necessary to scare you... The good news is that once you leave the theatre, you'll never think of Boogeyman again.
Read Full Review
33
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
This is strictly substandard stuff, with imitative creepy noises, vertiginous camera angles, and long pauses.
Read Full Review
30
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Mostly Boogeyman remains content to be a film about a boogeyman who hides in closets and under beds and gobbles people up. And for that, it deserves a certain amount of respect. On the other hand, the film could hardly be any sillier.
Read Full Review
30
The New York Times Anita Gates
The filmmakers are smart enough to keep the monster out of sight for a long time and then to show only glimpses, but a similar tactic of providing only glimpses of plot and character is disastrous.
Read Full Review
25
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The MPAA's rating explanation for this PG-13-rated snoozer misleadingly claims it contains "intense sequences of terror/violence"; it would be more accurate to state that Boogeyman contains "virtually every horror-movie cliché of the past 30 years."
Read Full Review
20
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
If you can't spell "bogeyman," you shouldn't make movies about him.
Read Full Review
20
Village Voice Joshua Land
It's difficult to remember a recent movie with less regard for spatial or temporal coherence. With the bar set so low, one wouldn't think the ending could possibly come as a letdown. Believe me, it does.
Read Full Review
20
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Even the should-have-been-triumphant revelation of the Boogeyman arrives as a CGI letdown of epic proportions.
Read Full Review
12
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A horror film whose only scare is that it was made at all... As with so many stupid horror movies in these post-''Scream" times, this one is at such a creative loss that all it can do is make its audience feel duped for having purchased a ticket.
Read Full Review
0
Premiere Kevin Allison
It’s a waste.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 3.6 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sol G gave it a0:
I thought this movie was going 2 be good but it wasnt it was not thought out well and very very bad acting like the boogeyman was not even scay.

chloe s gave it a0:
Its not scary at all i could watch it over and over again although the first half is the best bit.

M King gave it a7:
After all the reviews here I was expecting this to be terrible, but I really enjoyed it - it had some less-than-satisfying moments, but overall was a lot of fun.

Eddie Mac gave it a1:
This is easily the scariest movie ever; if of course the only other movie you've ever seen stars the Olsen twins. It is impossible to be scared by this movie. It had potential; I'll give you that, if only the people who made the trailer would have made the actual movie. I've seen a lot of bad movies, especially bad "horror" movies, and this one is right down there with Cabin Fever and Exorcist 4. Embarrassingly Awful!

Sam gave it a7:
Good movie. Not scary, but i bet if these people tried a bit harder they could make a scary movie, because the idea was fun, and it was eerie, just not scary. Pretty dang fun.

Chrystal gave it a3:
This movie was one of the worst I've seen lately. Not the scariest movie ever as some critics say. I wouldn't waste my money renting this one again. The effects were not good at all and the movie was slow and boring. The only part that was good was when it ended. Can anyone make a scary movie that actually scares you?

j boy gave it a1:
Made no sense, wasn't the least bit scary, poorly done cgi, bad acting...in short it had all the makings of a poor movie. I only gave it a one cause there were people in it.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use