Rish Outfield's reviews
The Boogeyman begins with a shockingly brazen imitation of the opening of Halloween. A little boy, caught spying on an oversexed family member, puts on a mask, and stabs the offender to death. The steadycam shot, the mask, even the music, my friends, ripped off John Carpenter's great film.
The story changed substantially after that, but there were still certain odd similarities. The girl and the boy from the first scene have grown, and we're supposed to think that the boy, who does not talk, is biding his time before he can strike again (and looking around for a handy William Shatner mask). It seems that the mirror that reflected the murder caught some of that residual evil (or some other nonsense) and now brings death to all it comes in contact with (except for the Opie-like child of the grown-up witness to the opening murder, of course. We didn't create a Little Kid Lamely Survives category from our own imaginations). When the mirror is broken, its shards continue their evil in a more mobile fashion.
Actually, I enjoyed this one more than tyranist did. There were some scenes that really delighted me, and just retelling the basic plot makes me want to rent Boogeyman II. Mirrors really scare me, you guys (you'd be scared too if you saw my face every time you looked in one), and though a haunted mirror is a pretty silly concept (or perhaps just executed in a silly way), I still found it unique.
It suffered from being tremendously slow, and felt like a TV movie a great deal of the time. But once the killings started happening (and that came after an hour of nothing), I found it interesting, and unintentionally funny. Besides, it included a couple of the most bizarre, over-the-toply brutal deaths ever.
Best Scare: Frankly, the thought that anyone could be named "Ulli" really frightens me.
I'd Recommend It To: Well, it wasn't that good. But for the sole moment of when the perverted, spying little brother pops his head into his sister's bathroom and shouts "Boogeyman!" and is killed by the window itself, I HAVE to recommend this movie.

The tyranist's thoughts
More than once in his career Ulli Lommel has been accused of ripping off another film. Almost always the film mentioned is The Devonsville Terror which contrary to popular belief really isn't a rip off of anything at all, but rather a pathetic attempt to cash in on the witchcraft craze before it hit. On the other hand, The Boogeyman so clearly rips off Halloween that even the most naive could probably see it. Replace Michael Myers with a ghost that is centered around a mirror and you have pretty much the same story.
I find this offensive in the extreme. There were certain plot elements that they didn't even try to disguise. The first death scene varied only very slightly and the core of the movie after that stayed true. I have to admit that there is just enough different that they can't be sued over it, but that doesn't make it okay.
On the good side, this did have some nice death effects. The acting wasn't bad and the dialogue wasn't as terrible as I wanted to believe it was. The key change to the Halloween story was interesting. And the deaths, although they were all peripheral, were fun.
I'm pretty torn on this one. I loathed how much it was a rip off, but it had some nice little original stuff and some cool effects that kept me watching. I guess you could say that I'm just not a Lommel fan and leave it at that.