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The Bargain Nexus - The Boogens
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List Price: $9.98
Our Price:
Your Save: $ 9.98 ( 100% )
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Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
Starring: Fred McCarren, Rebecca Balding, Anne-Marie Martin, Jeff Harlan, John Crawford
Directed By: James L. Conway
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780782008067
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0782008062
Label: Republic Pictures
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Republic Pictures
Release Date: 1998-07-14
Running Time: 95
Studio: Republic Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1982-01
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: It's a Boogen! And that tissue ain't gonna help!
Comment: It's a Boogen! And that tissue ain't gonna help!
The Boogens (1981) To answer that question right off...they have nothing to do with nasal mucus deposits, but instead they are mean little dog sized subterranean critters crawling up out of a re-opened silver mine in this fairly obscure monster movie from the early 80's horror boom. The story has two veteran miners moving into a small Colorado town to reopen the long closed silver mine. Luckily for us, they have also hired two young guys to assist who just happen to be the right age and disposition to be the lead and sidekick of an 80's horror movie. Unluckily for them, reopening the mine also involves opening up tunnels long closed, including one right underneath the house the young guys are renting and sharing with their girlfriends. This brings out a mysterious old man who starts skulking around the mine and the house, and from underground, some nasty little critters who proceed to eat the cast one by one. I had never managed to see this particular horror flick, missing it in the theater and never finding it on any of my cable channels or on VHS for rent in any of the years since its original release. As it turns out, the movie is only okay. It starts off well, introducing four likable main characters and starting the setup of the main plot with the original mine's closing being shown through newspaper clippings over the credits. From there though things slow waaay down as the Boogens claim only one victim in the first 50 minutes, though they do provide a constant threat to one character's dog in several scenes. And speaking of the Boogens, that is another big problem with the movie. Despite getting their appellation into the title, the creatures are only name checked in the movie once by that mysterious old guy who mumbles it during an attack scene, making even the one vocalization easy to miss. And along with never explaining why these creatures are called Boogens, the movie pretty much drops the ball entirely on filling in any back story at all. We get hints along the way that these creatures caused the mine to close 70 years before, and we expect that the old guy is going to eventually open up and spill the answers to all the questions. About the time we realize that this man, though elderly, is too young to have been an adult involved in a mining disaster 70 years before, he does finally stop skulking, but he barely has time to say he is the son of the single survivor of the mine's collapse, yell "You've let them loose again!" and mumble "It's the Boogens!" before one pops up to shut him up permanently. So the questions of what the Boogens are, where they came from, and how they survived 70 years closed off in the mine are never answered. On the plus side, the cast is kind of fun, with recognizable faces Rebecca Balding (Silent Scream and TV's Soap) Fred McCarren (Xanadu), Anne-Marie Martin (Dori Doreau on TV's Sledge Hammer!) and veteran character actors John Crawford (all over 60's and 70's television, like Batman and Mission Impossible) and Jon Lormer (Creepshow). The Boogens themselves are mostly represented through low to the ground point of view shots for the first hour or so in classic pre CGI monster movie style until they are finally revealed in all their early 80's animatronics glory near the climax. Of course, special effects critters are expensive, so there is really only one, but he plays several Boogens in the last twenty minutes or so. It is an effectively designed and nasty looking octopus type thing, though the lack of movement hinders the chase scenes since the movement is restricted to waving tentacles and growling. Luckily those low down point of view shots can still fill in for the chases. All in all, this one almost succeeds, but the draggy middle and lack of exposition end up making it only for 80's horror completists in the end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: crawling underground to surface baby dragons?
Comment: from what i can remember in 80's college dorm "cable"-(i think it was on "showtime")-days-this was a pretty good monsta flic w/ action from start to end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This Movie Should be a DVD
Comment: A really fine creature feature. The cast is good. The script has humor. The monster looks like E.T. with teeth. I seem to recall that the movie was marketed poorly. Too bad. It was really good junk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Please wake me when it's over........
Comment: Ive waited for this movie since my sister told me she saw it back in 82 at the theatre. I never believed her that there was a movie called THE BOOGENS because it was never released until now....but after I watched it,I wished she never told me about the movie because it would have saved me an hour and a half when I could have watched a better movie like darkness LOL! Id give it a 0 star but it wont let me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 5 STARS FOR THE IMPACT FELT FROM A VERY WELL-CRAFTED HORROR STORY!!
Comment: IN A NUTSHELL: SIMPLE WELL-CRAFTED TALE FROM A STAR TREK VETERAN
Boogens is NO epic, filled with eye-candy and wild thrills that come at you a mile a minute. It is a taut, slow, pressure cooker of a film that uses the unknown and unseen to build suspense which frightens and entertains. It's not surprising that the Director, James Conway, also directed a slew of Star Trek Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and The Next Generation episodes.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: AT THE "IMDB" 35% RATED BOOGENS AN 8/10 OR HIGHER!
After 70 years, a Utah silver mine which had been closed after a tragic cave-in is being reopened. What exactly happened to cause that long-ago cave-in has remained the town's biggest mystery. Now, as the mine is being reopened, people are vanishing again.
Now that the stage has been set, this is when it starts to get scary. Without spoiling the plot, let me just say that I have 5 children and each one of them, though most are adults now, literally gets up and runs when I mention this movie and the creatures that we gradually get to see at night. This is the kind of film that has you looking over your shoulder and watching to be sure nothing is crawling toward you in the dark. The best part about it is that explicit gore is almost completely absent, yet it is scary nevertheless.
BOTTOM LINE: "TREMORS" & "THE CRAWLING EYE" are similar and recommended!
This is scary in the same way an "Outer Limits" adventure might be. A great deal is implied and promised, but the delivery comes in a different form than we are accustomed to or expect.
ABOUT THE VIDEO:
Simply put, I wish this were available on DVD. Most of the out-of-print videos available are old and/or worn, so getting to see this film on a decent video is problematic.
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Editorial Reviews:
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When a long-abandoned Utah silver mine is reopened 100 years after a mysterious massacre, a group of young and amorous miners must face off the enthusiastically vicious monsters lurking beneath their feet. (From the little that is shown of the titular creatures, we can see that they closely resemble a cross between a snapping turtle and a ticked-off length of Jimmy Dean link sausage.) A nicely atmospheric drive-in classic that takes a while to get going, The Boogens boasts some creepy locations, a few good scares, and characters that are an intellectual cut above the usual splatter fodder (although they still have the nasty habit of splitting up and going off alone when investigating a strange sound). Superior schlock. --Andrew Wright
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