THE BOOGEYMAN : Tuesday 6th June 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE BOOGEYMAN' at my local multiplex this week and this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Rob Savage whose three previous feature film credits are 'Strings' in 2012, 'Host' in 2020 and 'Dashcam' in 2021. This film is based on the 1973 short story of the same name written by Stephen King and cost US$35M to produce, has so far grossed US$24M and has garnered mixed reviews from critics, having been released in the US and here in Australia last week.

Here then, high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are reeling from the recent death of their mother who died tragically in a car accident. Sawyer suffers from nightmares and seemingly has visions of a monster living in her closet, and Sadie is struggling to adapt back into school life where her friend Bethany (Madison Hu) has joined in with a new group of girls who treat Sadie with disdain, and offer up little sympathy over the recent passing of her mother. Neither of them are getting much support from their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. 

One day, Will is visited at his home therapy office by a man called Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) who asks to speak to him. Lester is insistent and as Will has a spare hour in his diary he reluctantly agrees. He goes on to explain that his three children have died, all killed one by one by an entity that he thinks has now latched onto him. Lester was never accused of the crime of murder, but in the court of public opinion he is guilty of murdering them. Although sympathetic to Lester, a disbelieving Will leaves him alone to call the Police. Lester slips away into the house and when Sadie is alerted to a shuffling sound in her mothers home art studio she goes to investigate, only to find Lester's lifeless body hanging from a coat hook on the back of the door.

Attempting to get their lives back to some sense of normality following the death of Billings, Sadie notices a strange black mould beginning to form above her bed, while Sawyer one night is woken by a mysterious creature that has hidden under her bed. Sawyer tells Sadie, who searches her bedroom but cannot locate the creature and does not believe her sister. The girls later visit their therapist Dr. Weller (LisaGay Hamilton) to talk about their mother's death. Weller uses a red light which flashes intermittently to help Sawyer get over her fear of the dark, but Sawyer observes the creature again when the room is thrust into darkness and the light flashes red and wets herself in fright. In the house, the creature continues to stalk and terrorise Sawyer while Sadie also glimpses it and begins to suspect the strange phenomenon is somehow linked to Lester's apparent suicide.

Sadie listens to her fathers recording of Lester's appointment and goes online to acquaint herself with the Billings family history and learns of their address. Sadie has Bethany drive her out to the Billings' now heavily vandalised and seemingly abandoned house. Inside she comes across Rita (Marin Ireland), Lester's estranged wife, who still lives in the house. Rita identifies the creature as 'The Boogeyman', stating it as the source of her children's deaths. She further tells Sadie that the creature feeds off fear and enjoys toying with its prey and that it can also mimic voices. The only way to ward off the Boogeyman is light. While talking to Sadie, Rita seemingly observes the Boogeyman approaching Sadie from behind. She warns Sadie not to move and to remain perfectly still, as she shoots at it with a shotgun, resulting in a disturbed Sadie fleeing the house.

The black mould continues its spread around the house. Later Sadie is alerted to strange noises coming from her mothers art studio. She gingerly enters in, only for Will to appear carrying a box of his wife's belongings which he was about to discard. Will and Sadie attempt to talk about the death of Sadie's mother with her convincing Will not to clear out the studio. Sadie takes the box down to the basement and begins to go through the contents of it, and other boxes too, writing 'keep' on each box. Whilst there Sadie seemingly encounters the spirit of her mother, directing the flame of an old Zippo lighter. At school, Bethany comforts Sadie following the episode at the Billings house, and decides to organise a girl's night at Sadie's house to cheer her up. While smoking a joint, Sadie almost chokes and runs through to the bathroom where she coughs up a tooth attached to a long piece of strings that Sawyer had lost shortly after the Boogeyman appeared. As a prank, Bethany's friends lock Sadie in the art studio closet, where she comes face to face with the Boogeyman. Banging on the door frantically to be let out, it remains tightly locked shut and then suddenly bursts open. A fight breaks out amongst the girls who all leave Sadie's house, angered by Sadie's reaction. Meanwhile, Sawyer is playing her PlayStation downstairs and is attacked by the creature and thrown into the TV, hospitalising her.

At the hospital, Sadie is comforting Sawyer, while Will is in a private room where they brought his wife to be identified after the car accident. Sadie is contacted by Rita, who believes she has devised a plan to kill the Boogeyman. Sadie arrives at the house where Rita has set up a trap with several shotgun shells and trip wires. She suddenly attacks Sadie, planning to use her as bait for the creature by tying her to exposed wall joists with cable ties. The Boogeyman appears setting off multiple traps and being shot several times. Rita sidles up to the apparent corpse and fires two more rounds into it for good measure. With her back turned to release Sadie, the Boogeyman rises and kills Rita. Sadie escapes falling down the stairs with the Boogeyman in pursuit but she shines a bright light on it and it retreats from whence it came. Sadie flees the house. Will calls her asking where she is, and Sadie realises they're already back home. The Boogeyman attacks Will and Sawyer, dragging them into the house. Sadie arrives and finds a hiding Sawyer, who has wrapped herself in green and red flashing Christmas lights, who says the creature took their father down into the basement.

The sisters go down into the basement with Sadie carrying an ice hockey stick for protection. There they find the creature seemingly feeding off Will. They rescue their father and a chase ensues in the basement. With the help of Sawyer and her mother's spirit, Sadie manages to set the creature on fire, seemingly killing it and destroying the black mould through the house. The three manage to escape the house as the flames take hold, engulfing the entire property. Some time after having moved on from their harrowing experience, Will, Sadie and Sawyer have a group session with Weller. As they leave, Sadie is called back to the office by Weller only to discover she isn't there and the closet door is open. Weller appears and questions Sadie, who looks at Weller suspiciously and shuts the door.

'The Boogeyman' is a reasonably well crafted albeit fairly pedestrian horror film that isn't up there with some of Stephen King's more noteworthy horror movie adaptations including 1976's 'Carrie', 1980's 'The Sining', 1983's 'The Dead Zone', 1990's 'Misery' or 2017's 'It', but it also doesn't lurk down in the depth's of some of the also rans that have peppered our cinema screens in the last forty or so years. There are a handful of jump scares, the lighting adds a sense of foreboding, the atmospherics add up to the feeling of dread and fear, and the performances of Thatcher and Blair especially carry this film firmly on their shoulders. But, the story adds nothing new to the genre that we haven't seen countless times before, and when The Boogeyman is finally revealed in the basement, the monster is nothing short of a rip-off of Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. This film is aimed squarely at a teen audience looking for by the numbers thrills and chills and on that note the film delivers, but for the more experienced long-in-the-tooth movie goer, this is an OK horror offering, but not great.

'The Boogeyman' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 1st June 2023.

The Tribeca Festival (formerly known as the Tribeca Film Festival up until 2020) kicks off on Wednesday 7th June and runs through until Sunday 18th June. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was founded by acclaimed Actor, Director and Producer Robert De Niro, the Producer Jane Rosenthal, and real estate investor Craig Hatkoff in 2002 to spur the economic and cultural revitalisation of Lower Manhattan following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Each year, the festival hosts some six hundred screenings with approximately 150,000 attendees, and awards independent artists in twenty-three juried competitive categories. This years Opening Night Film is the North American Premiere of 'Kiss the Future' - a documentary Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and which follows the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital. The Closing Night Film is the Robert De Niro Directorial debut 'A Bronx Tale' from 1993 which also stars De Niro as well as Chazz Palminteri and Lillo Brancato, and tells the story of a father who becomes worried when a local mobster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960's.

The 2023 features programme includes 109 feature films from 127 filmmakers across thirty-six countries. The lineup includes ninety-three World Premieres, one International Premiere, eight North American Premieres, one US Premiere, and six New York Premieres. There are forty-three first-time Directors and twenty-nine Directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects. 41%  of all feature films are Directed by women and, for the first time, more than half of competition feature films are Directed by women at 68%.

This years US Narrative Competition features the following titles :-

* 'Bad Things' from the US and Written and Directed by Stewart Thorndike. A weekend getaway for a few friends at a snowy resort becomes a psychological tailspin and bloody nightmare. Long-deceased guests and the space itself come to life in this haunting thriller. World Premiere.

* 'Cypher' from the US and Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Chris Moukarbel. Documenting the astronomical rise of rapper Tierra Whack, and capturing the weird and sinister side of fame. This riveting and enigmatic pseudo-documentary will have viewers questioning everything they see. World Premiere.

* 'The Graduates' from the US and Written and Directed by Hannah Peterson. After a tragedy, a group of friends face an unsettling senior year. Feelings of loss, anger, fear, and aimlessness abound within the community. World Premiere.

* 'Lost Soulz' from the US and Written and Directed by Katherine Propper. Set to a lo-fi, genre-bending soundtrack, this film follows a young rapper as he leaves behind his surrogate family and sets out on an expedition across Texas, contemplating new and old friendships. World Premiere.

* 'Mountains' from the US and Written and Directed by Monica Sorelle. Xavier works in demolition and dreams of buying a bigger house for his family, while his adult son, caught between two cultures, struggles to find a place for himself. What results is a loving portrait of the Haitian community in Miami. World Premiere.

* 'The Secret Art of Human Flight' from the US and Directed by H.P. Mendoza. While mourning the death of his wife and fending off an ambitious detective who thinks he killed her, Ben encounters a man who claims that he can teach him to fly. World Premiere.

* 'Smoking Tigers' from the US and Written and Directed by Shelly Yo. Set in the early-2000's Southern California, this film follows a Korean American girl as she navigates derision and growing tensions while balancing the duality of her low-income family and wealthy, elite high school environment. World Premiere.

* 'Somewhere Quiet' from the US and Written and Directed by Olivia West Lloyd. Here, a woman readjusts to normalcy after surviving a traumatic kidnapping — but her grounded sense of reality soon starts to deteriorate when she travels with her husband to his wealthy family’s isolated compound. World Premiere.

For the full details of the International Narrative Competition, the Documentary Competition, and the Spotlight Narrative, Spotlight Documentary, Spotlight+, Viewpoints, Midnight and Escape from Tribeca strands, you can visit the official website at : https://tribecafilm.com/festival

This week then to tease out to your local big screen Odeon on a decidedly cool late autumnal evening we have four new movies, that kick start with a computer-animated Superhero sequel that sees Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighbourhood web-slinger catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. Next up is an adaptation of a 1973 Stephen King short story of when a desperate patient seeking help shows up at the home of a young family reeling from the recent death of the wife and mother, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds off the suffering of its victims. This is followed by an Aussie film about an Aboriginal Australian girl from a troubled family who discovers a passion for photography while participating in a youth retreat. And, we close out the week with a Chinese comedy Sci-Fi offering about an editor of a struggling science fiction magazine, who attempts to find signs of an alien civilisation. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'SPIDER-MAN : ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE' (Rated PG) - is an American computer-animated Superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man and is Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson (in their feature film Directorial debuts). It is the sequel to 2018's 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' which grossed US$385M off the back of a production budget of US$90M, and is set in a shared multiverse of alternate universes called the 'Spider-Verse'. This film is released in the US this week too, delayed from an initial April 2022 date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A third film, 'Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse', is scheduled for release on 29th March 2024, while a female-focused spin-off film is in development with 'Across The Spider-Verse' intended to be the launch pad for that character..

Set over a year after the events of 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is unexpectedly approached by his love interest Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) to complete a mission to save every universe of Spider-People from the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who could cause a catastrophic disaster. Miles is up for the challenge, where he and Gwen journey through the Multiverse together and meet its protectors, a group of Spider-People known as the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). However, Miles finds himself at odds with Miguel and the Spider-Society on how to handle the threat. Also starring the voice talents of Brian Tyree Henry, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Greta Lee, Shea Whigham and Andy Samberg. 

'THE BOOGEYMAN' (Rated MA15+) - this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Rob Savage whose three previous feature film credits are 'Strings' in 2012, 'Host' in 2020 and 'Dashcam' in 2021. This film is based on the 1973 short story of the same name written by Stephen King. Here then, high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are reeling from the recent death of their mother and neither of them are getting much support from their father, Will (Chris Messina), a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their home seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims. Also starring David Dastmalchian and LisaGay Hamilton, and released Stateside this week too.

'SWEET AS' (Rated M) - is an Australian coming of age drama film Co-Written and Directed by Jub Clerc in her feature film making debut. The film had its World Premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in mid-August last year where Clerc won the Innovation Award. It saw its International Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022, where it won the NETPAC Award for best film from the Asia/Pacific region, and it also screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February this year where the film took won the Crystal Bear. In the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, troubled sixteen-year-old Indigenous girl, Murra (Shantae Barnes-Cowan), finds herself abandoned after an explosive incident with her drug-fueled mother. On the cusp of being lost in the 'Child Protection' system, an unusual lifeline is thrown her way by her uncle Ian (Mark Coles Smith), the local cop, in the form of a unique Photo Safari. Before Murra knows it, she is careening down a dusty highway with a minibus full of 'at risk' teens and two charismatic team leaders. Will this be the lifeline Murra needs or a catalyst for her demise? 

'JOURNEY TO THE WEST' (Rated PG) - this Chinese comedy Sci-Fi film is Co-Written and Directed by Dashan Kong in his feature film debut, and saw its World Premier screening back in October 2021 in its native China, before a somewhat protracted release in other territories over the next eighteen months eventually getting a release here in Australia this week. Tang Zhijun (Haoyu Yang), an editor-in-chief of a Space Exploration magazine, a science fiction magazine that is a product of the 1980's. With the decline in the print magazine business he gradually drops out of society and becomes somewhat reclusive, yet attempts to still find signs of alien life. A strange young man claims to have received instructions from aliens, and so Tang assembles a group of misfit friends and together they head for the village of Burning Nest on Daliang Mountain hoping to find definitive proof of what Tang has always believed in. The film has collected fifteen award wins and another three nominations from around the Chinese and Hong Kong awards and festival circuit.

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-