The central crux revolves around psychology major Sarah Morris (Erin Cahill) who unwittingly becomes sympathy sponge for the troubled Audrey (Nikki Sanderson) and inadvertently implicates herself in something rather ominous courtesy of the boogeyman, who turns his attentions toward systematically slaughtering her friends in all manner of heinous ways. In many ways it most closely resembles the slew of mediocre A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels which surfaced during the nineties with decent production values but little to no real grace or poise.
Thus the significant burden falls squarely onto the boogeyman of the title’s shoulders and I’d rather face up against this grungy-deadbeat over Mister Babadook any day of the week.Ĭerebral isn’t a term I would choose when describing Boogeyman 3. Having already broken bread with a bona-fide boogeyman, how could a by-the-numbers all-American slasher flick ever dream to cut the mustard? Jones’ tale features a cast of homogeneous cookie-cutter characters and precious little in the way of invention or an original approach to its themes. Regardless of the fact that I was entering without pre-formed expectation, watching Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook the night previous possibly wasn’t my most astute move in hindsight. His plentiful experience behind the camera (Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter’s Cove, Spiders) coupled with a more extravagant budget than he had been provided previously made for far too attractive proposition to pass up.Īs much as I march to the beat of my own drum, sometimes I miss a beat. Moreover, two apparently flawed attempts at attaining its fan base arms Jones with precious knowledge of what not to do. Playing to the straight-to-DVD crowd’s sensibilities affords Jones a little more freedom to operate, particularly when it comes to grue as it doesn’t need pander to the PG-13 masses any longer. The Boogeyman franchise no longer commanded an audience at the box office so, in some ways, there seemed less pressure on the third entry to perform.
When I learned that Gary Jones’ third installment is commonly referred to, not as the runt of the litter as expected, but as the closest the series has come to finding its algorithm, I was intrigued enough to take a further look. The first was damned on account of questionable and overused CGI, while its sequel addressed the issue by making its killer more tangible rooted in the real world, making for what is regarded a fairly standard slasher romp. The first two films in this faltering series, neither of which I have seen, are reasonably well-known, likely due to Sam Raimi’s involvement but neither were met particularly graciously upon their release. Sometimes I operate ass-about-face and Boogeyman 3 is living proof of that truth. When Lindsey Buckingham suggested so eloquently that I should go my own way, I guess I just took it a little too literally thus I never really cared much for keeping up with the Joneses.
I’ve never been one to follow convention.