As children, being afraid of the dark is quite common; parents normally don’t think anything of it. But imagine that the shadow you saw lurking in the dark, the one that everyone said was your imagination, really came to life and there was no one that would believe you.

Set in Chicago, Boogeyman tells the haunting tale of Tim Jensen, played by Barry Watson, who is traumatized by memories of terrible events that he experienced within his childhood bedroom. He had fears of something lurking under his bed or in his closet. It didn’t help that Tim’s father told him stories of the Boogeyman. One night, Tim was paralyzed with fear because he was seeing objects in his room coming to life, so his dad came in to reassure him. But when Dad checks the closet, he’s violently sucked away by something inside and is never seen again. No one ever believed Tim’s story about how his father disappeared.

Fifteen years later, Tim is forced to visit his girlfriend Jessica’s parents for Thanksgiving. Because of this, Tim is forced out of the comfort zone of his own apartment. His guest room has a closet and the bed is on legs, where as Tim’s apartment is specially designed with no dark corners, no closets, and a transparent-glass-front refrigerator, the doors are removed from the cupboards and his bed set directly on the floor, with no crawl space, this way there is no place for the boogeyman to hide. Tim copes the best that he can at Jessica’s parents house. During the night Jessica sneaks in wearing only a tank top and panties. She gets in bed with Tim and they begin to snuggle. Without warning, Jessica morphs into Tim’s mother, played by Lucy Lawless. After his mom gives him a warning that he “can’t run from it,” she turns back into Jessica. A moment later, Tim gets a call on his cell phone that his mother has just died.

He returns to his hometown for the funeral and takes his old psychiatrist’s advice: he stays in his childhood home overnight to prove to himself that no monsters are after him. “There’s nothing in there but memories,” the doctor, played by Robyn Malcolm, tells him. The psychiatrist was wrong. The boogeyman is real, he is after Tim and, apparently, everyone that Tim cares about.

Boogeyman is directed by Steven T. Kay. The cast includes Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcolm. Boogeyman was released February 4, 2005. Jesse Hassenger of filmcritic.com said, “Boogeyman is weirdly close to a children’s film, with its needy, orphaned ghosts and after-school message about facing your fears.” Boogeyman is rated PG-13. All through this movie I was on the edge of my seat. The movie was creepy and it made me jump. I enjoyed the 1 hour 26 min movie. I would recommend people to go out and see it.

I give it four stars.