Pure Cinema: Sharing My Letterboxd Likes Day 53

(My full Letterboxd review.)

The movie opens with the Davis family moving into a new house in Lucifer Falls, New England (hoo boy). It's not long before the kids notice some spooky shenanigans going on, but Mom and Dad are preoccupied with unpacking. A strange old man (John "Gomez" Astin) informs them that the house is haunted by the ghost of William Hanover, a cruel pilgrim who loved a widow named Marion. She didn't return his feelings, so Hanover agreed to give the Devil his soul in exchange for a cloak that granted him incredible powers. However, his first spell doesn't work out just right, and he destroys his own home, simultaneously killing himself, Marion, and Marion's son Jonathan. As a result, Hanover and the widow's little boy are confined to the house that currently occupies the land, and Marion is unable to enter and retrieve Jonathan, being forever separated from her son. Once all this becomes clear to the Davis family, they reason that Hanover (who they call "the boogedy man") is powerless without his hell-spawned cloak, and devise a plan to take it away. This will prove easier said than done, of course.

MR. BOOGEDY is the quintessential nostalgic horror film for 80s kids. It's got cheesy effects, likable characters, spooky settings, and a formidable villain. You have to wonder how much this script got looked over back in the day. After all, there aren't many baddies from the House of Mouse who've called upon Satan in exchange for a favor.

It's great how the movie escalates. At the start, Boogedy's antics seem harmless, even fun: moving furniture, creepy disembodied voices, the typical poltergeist bit. By the end of the story, Boogedy is actively trying to kill the Davis family. He's gone from a cranky old man with a broken heart to a vengeful demon. Not to mention that the make-up work was more than decent, giving the sour ghost a fearsome appearance. The other special effects may not seem so special by today's standards, but I saw Boogedy's face behind my eyelids more than once when I was younger.

The cast, which includes Kristy Swanson, is game for the whole affair, and you have to love the joke shop-owning dad, who supplies the movie with some of its biggest laughs. The real draw though was getting John Astin to portray Mr. Witherspoon. The man was a pro, and whatever he thought about the script or the characterization, he gave this made-for-TV flick everything he had. A truly wonderful piece of work.

MR. BOOGEDY is streaming on Disney Plus.