The Boogens

The Boogens is a 1981 American monster film directed by James L. Conway and starring Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren, Anne-Marie Martin, Jeff Harlan, John Crawford, Med Flory, Jon Lormer, and Scott Wilkinson. The title refers to scaly turtle-like monsters that are released from an abandoned and boarded-up silver mine, and begin to wreak havoc.

The Boogens
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames L. Conway
Written byDavid O'Malley
Jim Kouf (as Bob Hunt)
Produced byCharles E. Sellier Jr.
StarringRebecca Balding
Fred McCarren
Anne-Marie Martin
Jeff Harlan
John Crawford
Med Flory
Jon Lormer
Scott Wilkinson
CinematographyPaul Hipp
Edited byMichael Spence
Music byBob Summers
Production
company
Distributed byJensen Farley Pictures
Release date
  • September 25, 1981 (1981-09-25)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$600,000
Box office$3 million[1]

Plot

A small construction team of four men work to reopen an abandoned silver mine, 100 years after a mysterious massacre forced the military to shut it down. What they don't know is that their excavating has inadvertently freed some predatory creatures (cross between a turtle and a spider) lurking deep within the mine shafts.

Cast

Production

The Boogens was produced by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and Bill Cornfold, and written by Thomas C. Chapman, David O'Malley and Jim Kouf (as Bob Hunt).[2]

Parts of the film were shot in Park City, Kamas, Ontario Mine, Mayflower Mine, and Heber in Utah.[3]

Release

The Boogens opened in US theaters on September 25, 1981,[4] distributed by independent outfit Jensen Farley Pictures.[5]

Home media

The film was released on VHS by Lions Gate on July 14, 1998.[6] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Olive Films (under license from Paramount Home Entertainment) on August 7, 2012.[7]

Reception

On aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Boogens holds a 33% approval rating, with a rating average of 4.7 based on nine reviews.[8]

TV Guide gave it 1 out of 5 stars, criticizing the film's incoherent plot.[9] Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews gave the film a grade C+, stating, "At best, it's a so-so horror pic".[10]

Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! gave the film a positive review, writing, "A charming little homespun monster movie, it's a far cry from many of its gooey, splattery contemporaries, and it's armed with a solid cast that makes it personable in the absence of an abundance of on-screen carnage. All told, a pretty good flick was mined from the old monster movie standard".[11] The A.V. Club critic Keith Phipps described the film as "charmingly clunky", and said that it "plays like a cross between the then-omnipresent slasher films and a '50s monster movie".[12] Diabolique critic Samm Deighan called it "a charming, if sedate mishmash of horror genres and tropes", but praised the acting, saying that "The Boogens' small, intimate cast is surprisingly solid, and its characters are likable", and that "despite the low budget, the sets and effects are solid".[13]

The film notably received a positive review from author Stephen King in The Twilight Zone Magazine.[14]

References
  1. Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 294. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  2. Canby, Vincent (2008). "The Boogens (1982)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16.
  3. D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.
  4. "Movies in theaters the week of September 25th, 1981".
  5. "AFI|Catalog".
  6. Amazon.com: The Boogens [VHS]: Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren, Anne-Marie Martin, Jeff Harlan, John Crawford, Med Flory, Jon Lormer, Peg Stewart, Scott Wilkinson, Marcia Dangerfield, Paul Hipp, James L. Conway, Michael Spence, Bill Cornford, Carole Fontana, Charles E. Sellier Jr., Cliff Osmond, David O'Malley, Jim Kouf, Thomas C. Chapman: Movies & TV. ISBN 0782008062.
  7. "The Boogens (1982) - James L. Conway". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  8. "The Boogens (1982) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixster. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  9. "The Boogens - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TV Guide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  10. Schwartz, Dennis. "boogens". Sover.net. Dennis Schwartz. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  11. Gallman, Brett. "Horror Reviews - Boogens, The (1981)". Oh, the Horror!. Brett Gallman. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  12. Phillips, Keith (8 August 2012). "The Boogens". Film.AVClub.com. Keith Phillips. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  13. Deighan, Samm. "The Boogens (Blu-Ray Review) - Diabolique Magazine". Diabolique Magazine.com. Samm Deighan. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  14. "Digging the Boogens" in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, July 1982 issue
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