Review of The Boogens (1981) by Ling C — 15 Mar 2006

The Boogens.

Starring: Fred McCarren and Rebecca Balding.

Director: James L. Conway.

A Utah silver mine that was sealed a century ago after a string of bizarre and violent occurances is reopened by some young whipper-snappers with no respect for the past. Will the cycle of horror start all over again?

After a very clever opening credits sequence, "The Boogens" is all down hill. To describe this movie as a pedestrian effort is to be kind. It's utterly predictable, something which isn't always bad, but in this case I was not only consistantly ahead of where the movie was going, but I was invariably dissapointed when it got there.

Virtually nothing rises above the level of mediocrity in this film. The monsters are unimpressive--downright stupid-looking AND badly done--the actors are nothing to cheer about, and the script is weak in all respects, except one: the lead characters are not as dumb as the average players in the most typical tales of this type.

There are far worse monster flicks than "The Boogens", but there are even more that are better. Stick with "Tremors" or even "Island of Terror" when you have a hankering for this type of movie.