BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN (2024)

New on digital download and On Demand from Breaking Glass Pictures!
Directed/Written by Calvin Morie McCarthy.
Starring Elissa Dowling, Airisa Durand, Chynna Rae Shurts, Tim Coyle, Khail Duggan, Jax Kellington, Marcella Laasch, Steve Larkin, James Luster, Calvin Morie McCarthy, Nicolette Pullen, Jason Reynolds, Erik Skybak, Rollyn Stafford
Check out the trailer here!!

BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN takes a page from Amicus’ ASYLUM wherein a new psychologist visits a mental facility and is offered a number of stories talking about the backstories of the patients. Using the orientation of the new psychologist Dr. Tristan MacKenzie (played by WE ARE STILL HERE and GIRL ON THE 3RD FLOOR’s Elissa Dowling) as a wraparound segment, the film acts as an anthology about patients all suffering from a similar psychosis—a monster they refer to as the Boogeyman haunts their waking and sleeping hours.

This is the part of the review where I would dissect each segment of the anthology with a few words. But in BEWARE OF THE BOOGEYMAN, almost all of the short segments are pretty much exactly the same. A person believes they have encountered a malevolent force commonly known as the boogeyman and are proven right, leading them to the asylum. One person has been haunted by the boogeyman since she was a child. One started a medication and began seeing the boogeyman. One begins seeing him after he commits a murder and tries to dispose of a body. Another is trying to prove his innocence of murdering his wife by capturing the boogeyman on tape. My favorite of the bunch is the final story where a drug addict begins seeing the Boogeyman after using crack and drinking hand sanitizer. Sure, these are al ok premises, I guess, but every story ends the same—the boogeyman is real and these people end up in an asylum. That makes for some predictable stories that don’t feel well thought through.

I will give BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN one thing, it appears either the writer (who is also the filmmaker Calvin Morie McCarthy) knows his stuff about psych jargon. The technical speak between the female doctors who are looking through these case files are pretty solid, arguing different theories and coming up with possible diagnoses. Now, it really isn’t ethical for psychologists to diagnose a client without meeting them first, discussions and hypothesizing the causes and details of the psychosis is fair game, especially between peers while discussing patients. I would assume filmmaker McCarthy has some background in psychology, as he writes the terminology very well. At the very least, BEWARE OF THE BOOGEYMAN has an air of authenticity in that area.

But that’s about it in terms of positives I can give BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN. It’s predictable and rather flatly shot. There is a nice little animated sequence bringing to life a bedtime story about a dead dog, but other than that, everything feels overly staged, gaudily lit, and quicky written. I think had one of these stories been fleshed out, it might have been a stronger concept. But as is, BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN just didn’t work for me.