"The most terrifying nightmare of childhood is about to return!" when siblings Lacey (Suzanna Love, HAIR!) and Willy (Nicholas Love, WILD AT HEART) receive a letter from their dying mother who wishes to see them one more time. The letter brings back traumatic childhood memories of Willy stabbing his mother's abusive lover to death. Although no one thinks to seek help for Willy - who has been mute since the act, squirrels away knives, and paints over mirrors - Lacey's husband Jake (Ron James, OLIVIA) takes her to a psychiatrist (John Carradine, THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES) for her nightmares, and he suggests they revisit her childhood home to confront her fears. The mirror in which Lacey witnessed the murder still hangs in the bedroom and she smashes it when she sees her mother's lover in the reflection. For some odd reason, Jake takes the pieces of the mirror back home with them and puts it back together; however, stray shards containing the vengeful spirit of the dead man start wreaking telekinetic havoc: first upon the family currently living in the house, and then upon some picnicking teenage slasher film cannon fodder, as the force makes its way to the farmhouse where Willy and Lacey live with her husband and their uncle and aunt. By the time they are ready to believe, it may be too late for an excorcism!

A supernatural take on the body count film - with a side of CARRIE-esque telekinetics - THE BOOGEY MAN is mostly derivative of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in terms of its titular menace, an atmospheric electronic score, as well as prowling camerawork (no Panaglide in this case, though) and an emphasis on the gaze. The film might even be regarded as inferior to the Carpenter work, but this early bid for the American mainstream from director Ulli Lommel's (BLACK DAHLIA) - who got his start as an actor in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who would then prodduce his directorial debut TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES) - has an elegant and unsettling identity all of its own thanks to a certain European artiness, some psychological awareness, and the central performance of then-girlfriend/muse Love who would grace most his eighties works. The sequel BOOGEYMAN II was directed by Lommel's assistant director Bruce Starr and would feature Lommel himself as a producer who listens to Lacey's experiences (with liberal recycling of footage from the first film) before a wickedly funny party finale in which several shallow show business types are skewered figurately and then literally as a shard of the cursed mirror makes its way into the Hollywood Hills in Lacey's luggage (avoid at all costs Lommel's own "redux" version released on DVD by Image Entertainment). A dreary direct-to-video sequel THE RETURN OF THE BOOGEYMAN would follow in 1994 directed by cameraman Deland Nuse (THE CHILLING) and also featuring heavy recycling of footage from the first film. Besides the score by Tim Krog, the film also includes two songs by 4 Out of 5 Doctors (whose work also was also showcased in the slasher THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW).

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Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: These Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.