Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Paul Magne Haakonsen
I was born in 1975 and watched a fair amount of horror movies during the mid- and late 1980s, odd why I never stumbled across this title. But I did recently, and then I sat down to watch it.Wow, talk about being slow paced! I managed to sit through one hour of this ordeal of a movie. And in all of that time nothing, yes nothing, happened to make the movie even remotely interesting.The characters are flat and one-dimensional, which means you have no interest in them or what happens to them.And the storyline was just about capable of putting you well into dreamland. So there are not thumbs up director James L. Conway on this accomplishment.This was as uninteresting as it gets, and I am not ever returning to finish this movie, not now, not ever.
Blazehgehg
With the advent of cheap CGI, a lost art has been created: the monster movie, sans monster. Creating a monster in the olden days was expensive. Having a good-looking puppet, or dare I say even something animatronic, would cost several hundreds if not multiple thousands of dollars, and could even require hiring a specialist to operate the creature. A lot of these older movies just didn't have the budget or the connections for that sort of thing.The Boogens is one of those monster movies -- it's 90 minutes long, but for the first 75-80 of those minutes, you'll never guess what the monster looks like. It's all POV shots of... well, it could be anything, really. Does it have arms? Legs? Teeth? Claws? Wings? Is it large, small? You just don't know, and the only clues you're given are from first-person point of view shots as the monster skulks around in the shadows.The movie tries to fill that void with stronger characters, and admittedly, the cast here isn't bad. There's some fun banter and decent characterization in the long, slow lead up to the monster finally taking action. But it just isn't enough. I eventually found myself getting bored, waiting for literally anything to happen. And that fun banter? Sometimes it's laid on just a little too thick.The Boogens finally slams on the gas pedal in the last ten minutes, but for all the setup the payoff feels thin and rushed. It's a race against a creature we've only just barely been introduced to. It doesn't help that when the creature is finally given the spotlight, I found it to look more silly than scary -- and maybe even a little cute.The Boogens is... tolerable, but not great. As a horror movie, it's just not very suspenseful. But you could do worse. That's the best endorsement I can give it.
jaguiar313
The Boogens is a 1981 horror flick that has become a bit of a cult classic partially due to it's unavailability for almost 2 decades and partially for it's amusing title. It's just fun to say "Boogens". The film also has sentimental importance to me, as it was one of the horror flicks I saw with friends at the legendary Oritani grind house in Hackensack, N.J. A time when B movies were still released in a theater, where they belong, and a time I now cherish in this direct to DVD and VOD age. Now being given the chance to revisit this low budget chiller, it's time to answer the question of whether it's as fun as I remember or has time and nostalgia created a far better memory then it was a movie. And I'm happy to report it still is a fun flick, although 80s nostalgia does play a part. In a way, "Boogens" is a quintessential horror for the late 70s, early 80s with it's slow burn, creepy old man with ominous warnings, and nubile girls in skimpy bathrobes investigating noises in dark cellars. This is exactly the type of movie Ti West paid homage to in the recent "House Of The Devil". A few months later Evil Dead would arrive and crank horror flicks up to 11 and Jason was just getting started on his body count.This 1981 horror stars Rebecca Balding ("Silent Scream") and takes place in rural Silver City, Colorado, a small mining town where the mines are being reopened for the first time since a supposed cave-in 70 years previous. But, unknown to two college grads (Fred McCarren and Jeff Harlan) working on the re-opening and their two nubile young ladies (Balding and the equally cute, Ann-Marie Martin), the mines were caved in on purpose and unsealing the tunnels unleashes our title creatures and they are quite hungry.Boogens is well directed by James L. Conway who also directed pseudo-documentaries like "Hanger 18" and "In Search Of Noah's Ark" and who went on to direct a lot of genre TV including episodes of all the post-original "Star Trek" series and the current, "Supernatural". He directs with a leisurely pace but, builds some nice suspense and also knows to keep his monsters hidden until the very end. And when we do see them, they are good old fashioned prosthetics, there's something charming about prosthetics that CGI rarely matches. He gets good performances out of his cast and the fact that they are all very likable helps add suspense when they are in danger. There is some nice gore but, it is used sparingly and the body count is low. This movie was made just as the slasher sub-genre started to gain momentum and before body count became crucial to the proceedings.Sure, by today's standards "The Boogens" is tame, slow and cheesy but, it is the type of horror that they made when I was in high school and I will always have a soft spot in my movie geek heart for them. The transfer on blu-ray is absolutely beautiful and it's worth a look for horror fans, especially those who enjoy horror from this era. Welcome back, "Boogens".
BA_Harrison
It's not unusual for a horror film to feature one or two characters so irritating that they fully warrant a painful demise, and The Boogens is no exception, with Roger, played by Jeff Harlan, being the film's most deserving ass-hat; this particular film goes one step further, however, by even including a dog so obnoxious that you'll be cheering when it eventually meets its fate.The creatures responsible for the doggy's death are 'Boogens', vicious subterranean monsters that are accidentally set free by a group of miners when they reopen an old Colorado silver mine. Once loose, the ravenous critters crawl along tunnels that connect to the house currently occupied by Roger, his pal Mark (Fred McCarren), their pretty girlfriends Vicky and Trish (Anne-Marie Martin and Rebecca Balding), and the movie's maddening mutt Tiger.The insufferably inane 'jokes' and puerile sex-chat from Roger are enough to make you want to switch off, but with the film also dragging its heels regarding actual monster fun, it really is a bit of a chore to get to the end. The film is almost over before the creatures are shown in their entirety and, to be honest, they're really not worth the wait—rubber slug/turtle thingies with random tentacles and claws; they're so crap, one can hardly blame the film-makers for keeping them out of sight for as long as possible.Making the ride a little bit easier to bear are Martin and Balding, who provide a bit of eye-candy to prevent total boredom setting in. Balding very kindly bares her butt and boobs, but Martin keeps herself covered, even when being chased around the house wearing nothing but a bath towel.
