Boogeyman II (1983) Directed by Ulli Lommel
More like a patchwork of The Boogey Man than an integral follow-up in itself, it’s actually more incongruous footage than a movie functioning as a sequel; it’s inharmonious stuff. But it’s something, nonetheless. Suzanna Love reprises her role as Lacey, the tormented young girl who with her brother suffered as a child from the cruel abuse of their neglectful dipsomaniac mother and wicked stepfather. In Boogeyman 2, no longer must she face the barbaric, revenge-driven spectre of her mother’s partner, but now she must contend with the follies of the L.A. film biz. If you’ve seen the first installment – which I think is an impressive well-rounded ’80s horror flick – then you’ve already seen Boogeyman 2, with the righteous exception of its bonkers slasher-tinged third act. Just pondering what Ulli Lommel is attempting to do with this rehashed material renders this whole critical process that much more stultifying and complicated. I mean, who in their right mind would assault their own creation and handle it as dastardly as they do here? The crux of the issue isn’t that this is schlocky filmmaking, it’s that the movie devotes an ungodly chunk of time to showing montage-ish, bare-bones footage straight out of The Boogey Man. The narrative rationale is that the lengthy footage we follow serves as a vivid visualization of the events Lacey chronicles under the balmy climes of Hollywood Hills to the greedy industry vultures who want to exploit her personal experiences to put them on the mainstream screen. However, this sort of metafictional satire in which Ulli Lommel himself plays a filmmaker is only a tiny portion of the film. That portion is a treat, slasher impishness being propelled by the same oddball unearthly phenomenology of The Boogey Man’s broken mirror. But first you have to endure the initial illogicality to get to the other enjoyable absurdity. If you don’t eat the main course, you don’t get dessert, and I really don’t think it’s worth eating the main course just for a quick tasty bite at the end.