Monday, August 6, 2007

Classic Movie Review: "Mr. Boogedy"











This week I decided to go really old school and review a long lost piece of my childhood nostalgia. I'm doing this in an effort to ward off such abominations as "Drake & Josh", "That's so Raven" and "The Suite life of Zach & Cody" from ruining the minds of my neices and nephew. I've made each night that I babysit them "Movie Night" I've shown them gems such as "Labyrinth", "Monster Squad", and "Adventures in babysitting", all to their genuine delight. They're simply not used to decent children's entertainment because of the shit that saturates today's market. So, after digging up my ancient, taped-from-tv copy of "Mr. Boogedy" I decided to give it a viewing, just to make sure it was okay for them. I mean, have you looked at the picture on the cover of this film? Mr. Boogedy is a pretty goddamn scary guy for a kid's movie.


Moving on, the basic storyline is about a man (Richard Masur) who moves his family into a home in a small New England town, not knowing that he got such a good deal on the house because of it's ancient, haunted history. They're met in their new home by the town's chief historian (John Astin), who warns them to vacate the house. The father of the family, who runs a practical joke store "Gags-r-us", simply does not take these warnings (or anything in his entire life, apparently) seriously. Needless to say, Mr. Boogedy does indeed haunt them in the house, and Disney, family friendly, pseudo-horror ensues.

This movie has 2 genuinely creepy aspects. One, the fact that Mr. Boogedy looks like a mix between Freddy Kreuger and and Slimer from "Ghostbusters". Seriously, look at him...
I mean, Jesus Christ. That's enough to make any kid drop a boogedy in his undies. It's surprising that for a Disney movie they would come up with such a truly scary villain.

The second creepy aspect of this film is the way they describe the genesis of Mr. Boogedy. He was a man who lived in the time of the Pilgrims, and enjoyed scaring children in his village and committing other devious deeds. What got to me about this is that it is told in a sort of tableau style stage-play, somewhat reminiscent of German expressionist films like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Now, maybe that's looking a bit into it, but that's what it looks like. Anyway, He sells his soul to the devil to get the woman he wants and ends up becoming Mr. Boogedy. Keep in mind, this was a Sunday Night Diney TV movie, so the story is not exactly of the highest caliber.

Surprisingly, this film has a somewhat large fan base. In the age of DVD that we live in it's surprising that this hasn't been released yet, when every other piece of garbage that has ever been produced seems to be available. In my opinion, the greatest strength of this movie is the nostalgia factor for people who remember it from their childhood. Let's face it, there is a huge market for 80's kitsch, and this movie fits nicely into that category. And it scores bonus 1980's points because the older son in this film is none other than David Faustino, "Married...with children's" Bud Bundy.

So, will this movie make into one of my "Movie Nights" when I babysit? Sure. Anything is better than sitting through another episode of "Hannah Montana". Will my neices and nephew, or any kids today like "Mr. Boogedy"? I'm not so sure. The viewing experience is definitely enhanced by having actually lived through the eighties, a time when there was no CGI and we happily accepted shit special effects. All the same, it's a quirky, spooky movie that should at the very least be replayed each year near Halloween.

My score: 3.5 out of 5
True Score: 2 out of 5

2 comments:

mikal9300 said...

Jon, I used to love that movie when I was a kid... I need to borrow that off of you... I remember pieces of it... fake barf... peanut packing popcorn... a vaccum cleaner (I think)... the hazy flash back scenes of the pilgrim days. Haha I can't believe you still have that!

Roemeo82 said...

Dude i have been searching for that movie for that past year lol i just finally found it online to download i'm so happy! This movie has been one of my child hood memories i will never forget it. Even d=to this day when people talk about the boogey man i correct them and tell them its the boogety man because that's how i grew up knowing him lol personally i give this movie a 4 outta 5