Boogens

The Boogens (1981)

A sliver mine with a history of cave-ins is being reopened in the mountains of Colorado. Along with a couple of experienced miners two recent college graduates are working on the project as well. And of course being a couple of young guys they bring along a couple of girls with them. Everything is going okay until they unknowingly release some very hungry underground creatures that use the mine tunnels to move around and find fresh meat. Too bad for the locals that the fresh meat they find are them! Most of the movie is watching the creatures slink around in the shadows picking off the cast one at a time, until the survivors either find a way to bury them again or become the next meal.

This is a typical creature feature, which isn’t a bad thing. The setup works well as the small cast is setup and then knocked off one at a time. Though I will say that after the 1st kill it does take a bit too long for anything else to happen. We keep getting false jump scares and know that something is watching, but it goes on way too long. But when the creatures start at it again the movie picks up and has a satisfying, if utterly predictable ending. This is the kind of movie that you will be able to pick out who is going to make it to the final credits and who is monster chow almost as soon as they appear on screen. As a fan of creature features I don’t consider this a bad thing at all. Though it would be nice to be surprised now and again, I’ll take what I can get. That said I do have to ask why they always have to kill the dog? How about cutting the canine cast members a break now and again.

So being that this is a monster movie we obviously have to talk about the creatures. The Boogens keeps the creatures in the shadows as for the most part of the movie we only get glimpses of them. A tentacle here and there is all we see for most of the movie. This is a good thing because even I was laughing at the big reveal. The creatures look like large scaly turtles with tentacles that end in razor like claws. Not scary at all. Oh and puppetry used to bring the creatures to life only makes it worse. They look like Muppets with a bit of slime on them. Creature design can either make your movie a classic or drag it down; here it drags the movie down.

Other then the creatures looking goofy The Boogens is still a serviceable creature feature that provides a few scares, creates some atmosphere, and is worth checking out. This is an issue though. For some reason The Boogens hasn’t been released on DVD yet. With all the total crap that has come out this is a real head scratcher for me. If you can get your hands on a VHS copy or if you can catch it on cable then do so.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer