The Boogey Man - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

German actor, filmmaker, writer, all around not-nice guy Ulli Lommel certainly had an artistic change when he absconded to the US to work with Andy Warhol. That’s not say that the drugs and surrealism weren’t there before, as Lommel cut his teeth on working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, after all. It’s just that there’s definitely a degree of sadistic edginess that got unleashed after the move to the US. Such is part and parcel in The Boogey Man, an international box office success at the time. John Carpenter’s Halloween had only come out a couple years prior and had redefined the kind of horror films that people flocked to the theaters to see. Lommel took the opportunity in stride to make something that’s both a stylish rip-off of The Amityville Horror and The Exorcist, as well as a genuinely solid and scary slasher in its own right.

Sure, the narrative threads are all thin and predicated on your knowledge of how the scares were built in much better movies, however Lommel’s no slouch with the setup and payoff of really upsetting, sadistic horror gags. There isn’t much sophistication in the story itself, but there’s definitely some in the execution. Whether you’re okay with the less-than-plausible story rolling up to those moments is up to you.  

Lacey is forever scarred from witnessing her mother’s boyfriend’s murder in the reflection of a cursed mirror. Even worse, her brother Willy was the murderer. Years later, Willy (Nicholas Love) and Lacey (Suzanna Love) return to the scene of the crime and end up releasing a vengeful spirit from the very same cursed mirror when it gets smashed. Now, all the various glass shards control the fate of a bunch of unwitting teenagers in town. Oh, and the family priest, named Dr. Warren (John Carradine), is here to help exorcise the mirror.

As you can probably tell from the short plot description above, The Boogey Man throws together a few popular horror plots from the 70s, and thus there isn’t a lot of moment-to-moment connective tissue to hang on to. But where Lommel finds great power is the execution of these lo-fi, high-concept horror sequences, like shards of a mirror flying across rooms and possessing people, complete with in-camera special effects that are just good enough. And since it’s all wrapped up in a nicely gory bow, the scenes hit pretty hard.

I hate that one of the easiest ways to describe this movie is as a broken mirror with the disparate pieces all being finely sharp but incongruous as whole. Even as someone who isn’t a fan of a lot of these genre rip-offs, the 70s was a good decade to rip off and Lommel was a more-than-capable scaremaker. The result is gross and fun.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
God bless all of our doomed souls, for The Boogey Man is coming to get us…in 4K Ultra HD! This two-disc release (4K & Blu-ray) comes in a standard black case and if you order from Vinegar Syndrome it comes with that customary thick Vinegar Syndrome slipcover over it. The 4K disc is a UHD66 and the Blu-ray is a BD50. Both discs boot up to standard menu screens with options to play the film, set up audio, browse special features and select reels.

As mentioned previously, this new HEVC-encoded 2160p presentation is sourced from a brand new 4K restoration of the 35mm original camera negative by Vinegar Syndrome. This was a very low budget affair, with cinematographer David Sperling recounting in his attached interview that Ulli Lommel liked to shoot at standard shutter speeds and not do many takes to save on cash, but that weirdly doesn’t take away from how great everything looks here. Black levels are suitably inky despite the clear fluctuations at the source level and I didn’t notice any compression issues with that somewhat-heavy grain field over everything. Yes, there’s a few moments where you might see some fishing line meant to hold up a prop, though there’s no way to really get around that and it doesn’t hamper the overall experience. Some nicks and bumps are there at the source, like some waviness in the frame, however that doesn’t mar the encode or mess up the HDR-enhanced colors.

Even with those notes of damage, I was very much impressed by this presentation in its capability to pull that much detail from the source, pulling off those heavily stylized green hues caused by artificial lighting really well. Flesh tones are tuned in well and the HDR grade definitely reveals deeper, more diverse colors on clothing, skin and the set design. This is a very pleasing presentation despite the clearly aged and damaged source.

Vinegar Syndrome provides this release with a DTS-HD MA encode of the original mono soundtrack and it sounds very good, balancing the very flat dialogue and sharp score rather well. Special music effects are mixed in well during those scarier sequences and the score is a fun Halloween rip-off that sounds just as dated as it should. The source is in good condition, with only a few nicks and bumps to be heard throughout.

The supplements package is absolutely packed with interviews with original cast and crew. Ulli Lommel had the unique power to pull good camera people for his projects, probably due to his desire to make films for the sake of art, and that’s reverberated clearly throughout all the interviews here. As for the interview with Suzanna Love: well, uh, it’s really, really good, but I hope you’re ready for some rather disturbing facts about Lommel and his many abusive moments against Love over the years. It’s clear that the actress has grown from these experiences and she still respects the work that she did, but to talk about Ulli’s darker, violent side is to give context to his work.

The interview with David Sperling is very revealing about how they designed those scarier sequences, so maybe don’t watch that interview until after you watch the film. It’s still a lot of fun to hear from these craftsmen and the cheap-but-convincing ways they orchestrated movie magic.

4K UHD Disc 

• Audio commentary by editor Terrell Tannen
• Audio commentary by historian and author Kat Ellinger

Blu-ray Disc

• “Scenes from a Marriage” – Interview with actress Suzanna Love (HD 38:57)
• “Boofey Man, and So On” – Interview with cinematographer David Sperling (HD 33:59)
• “Pick-Up Girl” – Interview with actress Catherine Tambini (HD 8:21)
• “Cuts from the Mirror” – Interview with editor Terrell Tannen (HD 20:38)
• “Boogey Man as Art” – Interview with camera operator Jurg V. Walther (HD 15:01)
• Archival interview with writer/director Ulli Lommel (SD 18:00)
• Theatrical trailer (SD 2:07)
• TV spot #1 (HD 0:34)
• TV spot #2 (HD 0:34)

When you were growing up, The Boogey Man was just a fantasy. But he’s real, and he’s here now with Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K Ultra HD release of the film. The 2160p presentation aided by HDR looks very pleasing despite some source damage, plus there’s a really great collection of special features to dig into. This release comes Recommended. Just don’t blame us if something goes bump in the night when you bring this release home.