This another one of those movies that make me feel sad as it could have been so much better had the writer, director and producer, Ulli Lommel, spent a little more time on it. I can say this in fairness as the story is pretty sound and there are some good original bits in the movie. Though what you get is a lacklustre movie which steals shots and feeling from other movies to ignite the viewers fear. The opening panning shot to the front of the house is very reminiscent of John Carpenter and Halloween, even the soundtrack is very similar to Carpenter's style, as well as the Phantasm movies. The two protagonists of the film move in with their aunt and uncle on their farm... the farmhouse looks to have had the same architect as the Amityville house and in the end sequence all the windows glow red.These rip-offs scream of laziness. However, I liked the idea of a killer trapped in a mirror until the mirror is smashed and his soul is released to kill again. I think Lommel missed a major scene here. Instead of starting the film with the mother and her lover getting frisky as the kids spied on them. He should have started with the lover killing somebody on the way to his rendezvous with the mother. This would have added a depth to the "killer" character. As it is he's just a man wearing a stocking over his head... not really boogey man material... would he really go on a killing spree? This actually weakens the story as it's hard to believe.As for the special FX, these are hit and miss and I think the budget was spent on the more gruesome FX, though on the whole, they're more than passable. I particularly like the bathroom death sequence, especially the death by scissors, and the teenagers "kiss of death" in the mustang.The direction, for the most part, is okay. Lommel does create tension at times, there could have been more of it though. Some are obvious so it doesn't really work, like when Will is in the barn as a pitchfork gets ready to impale him. The pitchfork raises and hangs in the air for an eternity before his sister Lacey arrives to save him. If this had been trimmed down it would have worked much better, it's just too long.As for the acting... well, the best actors are the three kids who are in the original house where the murder took place. They actually do a good portrayal of brother and sisters. Their interaction is spot-on, each has their own life but still interact with each other. They're in the movie for only a few minutes, though this section is the best in the whole film.Lacey is portrayed by Suzanna Love (who also part scripted the screenplay), who takes woodenness to a new level - Suzanna Love Oak. The only person worse than her is the guy playing her brother, Will, Nicholas Love. For most of the movie he's mute, a psychological reaction to the murder, so you would think he would act using his body and facial expressions... Don't be silly. At times it looks like he's taken root. His stand-in could have been a store mannequin.The other actors are average and really try to do their best with speeches, which at times, are awkward and unconvincing. Even John Carradine cannot add any credence to this film.This is a movie for die hard horror fans. I watch films like this to find the hidden treasure in a quagmire of rubbish. It could be a good actor, an outstanding scene, or an effect that is well thought out and executed. Sometimes there's no treasure... but most of the time, like this film, there a couple of things.

Like many horror films back in the 1980's (and even today), The Boogeyman takes its influence from John Carpenter's landmark in horror, Halloween (1978). While Michael Myers was the physical embodiment of the 'boogeyman' legend (I say legend, but it is more a term given to whatever scares little children at night), Ulli Lommel's shockingly s**t video nasty goes the extra mile and adds a supernatural spin to the story in the shape of a haunted mirror.The quite effective opening has a young girl and boy spying on their slutty mother as she seduces a man with a stocking on his head. They are spotted, and the man ties the boy to a bed while they have sex in another room. The girl cuts him loose with a large knife, and the boy then uses it to murder the man. Years later, the boy Willy (Nicholas Love) is mute, and the girl, Lacey (Suzanna Love), is psychologically troubled by the events of her childhood. Her psychiatrist Dr. Warren (John Carradine, looking like he's hoping nobody will notice his presence in the film) advises her husband Jake (Ron James) that she should go back to her childhood home to confront her demons. She does, and while there she sees the man wearing the stocking in the bedroom mirror, which she smashes. Jake pieces together the mirror and takes it home, when strange deaths start occurring.Yes, this is as daft as it sounds. Horror movies have long made killers out of strange things (tomatoes, clowns, a house), but a mirror that influences suicides? Mmm. It's one of the strangest choices for a killer 'bad guy' I've come across in horror since the strangely likable Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977). If anything, this at least separates it from other mundane entries into the slasher genre, but the film struggles along trying to juggle a story a sibling connection, psychological torment, and standard stalk-and-slash. There is a half- decent death involving a 'long kiss', but apart from this, it is instantly forgettable.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

(Credit IMDb) A young girl witnesses her brother murder a man through a reflection in a mirror. Twenty years later the mirror is shattered, freeing his evil spirit, which seeks revenge for his death.Horror fans are often mixed on this movie. They either like it, dislike it or even go as far as to hate it. It moves slowly at times but like the movie it was so obviously influenced by, Halloween it builds up the suspense terrifically, even adding in some great death scenes in the process. The characters are better developed then one could expect for an Italian horror movie, nothing memorable but good enough to keep me caring. I liked the background story of the children too, especially the trauma in Willy's case. It also adds some Exorcist like elements too with the Priest and supernatural happenings. The musical score is chilling, and adds to the suspense. I enjoyed myself, and find it to be an underrated 80's Horror gem. Great effort by Ulli Lommel Performances Suzanna Love makes for an effective lead, at least by Italian acting standards anyway. John Carradine is a favorite of mine, but to say his performance is good here, would be lying. He gets a paycheck, but is wooden in doing so, entirely unconvincing. Ron James is wooden in his role as well. Nicholas Love was creepy as the Brother. Llewelyn Thomas is creepy as the Priest, and I'll always remember being creeped out by his shot with blood dripping down his forehead on the movie cover.Bottom line it's not perfect, but it's a prime example of why I love Italian Horror, suspenseful, well made, and even terrifying at times. You could do a lot worse then this part slasher, part possession film. Recommended if you can find it, sadly it's been banned as a Video Nasty in some areas. One thing's for sure, I won't look at Mirror's the same way again after Mirrors, and now this movie.7/10

This derivative little mess has a few things going for it, but ultimately crumbles under the weight of its own flimsy logic and silliness.Quick plot summary: A little boy murders his mother's abusive boyfriend, who somehow turns from a cruel jerk into a demonic evil spirit that returns years later to get revenge on the now-grown boy by killing random characters who have nothing to do with the murder. The malevolent force's path of vengeance is a bit hard to follow, especially since the focal point of the film is the boy's sister, who didn't actually participate in the killing. The murder is precipitated by the boy being tied to his bed as punishment for watching mother and boyfriend make out. It's important to note that before said make-out session, mother puts her pantyhose over boyfriend's head, which he continues to wear throughout the make-out session (safe sex was apparently practiced much differently in the early 80's). Sister cuts brother loose with a knife that he then uses to kill Panty Hose Head. The killing happens in front of mother's bedroom mirror, which captures Panty Hose Head's essence and blesses him with the ability to travel to any mirror he wants, possess people, and force them to stab themselves with scissors. His unexplained transformation also imbues him with telekinetic powers that allow him to execute strangers with clever death tools like a window sill and a car door. Did I mention that he goes on to possess sister and make her talk like Linda Blair? That's also very important to the story, so I'm sorry it took me a minute to share that. Some other stuff happens, and there's a little boy with a piece of broken mirror supernaturally bonded to the bottom of his shoe, and that phantom shard glows and pulsates and kills off a couple of ancillary characters by forcing them them to French kiss each other. Also, the now-grown brother tries to strangle some woman whose only purpose in the film is to be almost strangled for reasons unknown. There's a therapist in there somewhere too, but other than setting up a scene where sis does her Blair voice, I'm not sure why he's there either. Oh, and a chunk of glass from a shattered mirror vibrates and cuts the fingers of anyone who picks it up, but instead of letting go of the glass and not getting cut, the multiple people who pick up the glass choose to keep bleeding and shaking while they try to fit the piece back into the broken mirror. Oh, and a shard of this glass affixes itself to one of sister's eyes, which glows red or green depending on something that's never explained, and then she levitates and makes her husband bleed out of his eyes, but it turns out he's fine and the blood we see coming out of his eyes is actually just a couple of smears on his face in the next scene. And then a mirror gets thrown into a well and promptly explodes. This isn't a very quick plot summary, is it? Let's just stop there.Nearly everything about the film is borrowed from far superior works. The arbitrary title seems like an attempt to cash in on the success of Halloween (this is made even more obvious when you see the familiar "child's hand gripping a butcher knife" camera shot at the beginning). The pointless insertion of a priest who comes to investigate the strange happenings is an obvious nod to The Exorcist, as is the afore-mentioned voice our lead heroine adopts throughout the film. Even the house most of the film takes place in is only a coat of white paint away from being a doppelganger for the infamous Amityville Horror estate.The film builds slowly, but since the clunky execution of the plot isn't all that intriguing, the meager splatter thrown at us for a payoff isn't nearly enough to justify the journey there. You'll probably decide this whole affair is nonsense long before you get to the goriest scene in the film, wherein our previously discussed clergyman gets repeatedly stabbed in the back by kitchen cutlery... which causes fountains of blood to flow from his scalp (?!).On the plus side, there are some nice atmospheric touches, so even though there isn't any real tension to speak of, the film LOOKS like it should have some. The cast seems to take the goofy material as seriously as they can, so the performances are all serviceable. Plus, the music is pretty nifty.Aside from that, you probably don't need to spend 80 minutes trying to make sense of everything I've discussed here. If you do, the door is blatantly left open for a sequel, so you're probably committing yourself to an additional 80 minutes as well. Life is far too short, so let's just say I watched this movie so you don't have to and leave it that. As for Boogey Man 2: The Return Of Panty Hose Head, you're on your own there.