By Richard James

January is the month where, as the industry says, Hollywood studios like to release a barrage of mediocre to just plain terrible movies that they don’t believe in at all. What is also staggering is that some of these movies actually make money. This past January was no exception to that rule.

It started out with the insipid, ridiculous White Noise, starring Michael Keaton, then ended with the much better, but still overall disappointing, Hide & Seek with Robert DeNiro.

Now that January has come to an end, you figure the studios would finally get their groove back in the month of February. Unfortunately, such is not the case.

If all they could do is start the month with the likes of Boogeyman, with TV’s “7th Heaven” resident hunk Barry Watson in the title role, then it is the beginning of the end in the world of cinema as we know it.

It is a perplexing feeling when you see all the struggling artists trying to make it in the movie business turned away over and over for commerce over art, whether it’s as aspiring screenwriters, actors or even directors.

It is a known fact that the movie business is about money. Heck, our whole quality of life is all about trying to make money and spend it. At the same time, Boogeyman is a prime example of where the cliché that money is the root of all evil really comes into play.

There is just no reasonable, coherent understanding of how movies like this even get made anymore without someone, anyone, stopping this form of snuff trash from even seeing pre-production, much less from getting made. The way the movie looks, sounds and was written, if you can call it that, just has a feel of a movie studio just out to make a quick buck. It is like the studio blind-folded employees to pick out the next screenplay to be made and their hands accidentally landed on Boogeyman.

There are bad movies. Then there are bad movies. Boogeyman is in a class all its own. The plot, such as it is, has Tim Jenson (played by Watson) as a nervous lygophobic who has a tendency of staying away from dark closets, checking beds before settling into a room and sleeping with all the lights turned on.

Fifteen years ago, Tim had frightening memories of the Boogeyman. It escalated specifically when remembering how the ghost had left his father to an untimely demise.

All his superiors quote his memories as a way to block his father’s abandonment, but Tim thinks otherwise. He starts living a normal life in New York, but a funeral of an important member of his family calls him back home. Will he go there and discover his disillusionment, or face down a definitely real demon?

For the first 10 minutes, the movie engrosses you with potential. It is a very well constructed open beat that starts. Unfortunately, from then on, the movie falls flat on its face. The illogical patterns of the story, the atrocious acting and shoddy, lackadaisical special effects don’t help matters.

It’s a shame the movie wasn’t previewed for critics. They would’ve been able to inform the audience of the travesty that is this movie. It is also sad that the movie made $19.5 million at the box office this past weekend.

While the studios are raking in the money and thinking of us as suckers, at least there is already a candidate for the worst movie of 2005. You’ve been warned.

Final Grade: F

Even Barry Watson´s looks can´t help this terrible movie. (Image courtesy movies.yahoo.com)

(Image courtesy movies.yahoo.com)