User Reviews

My Father,Jeffery Sandler, was Supervising Sound Editor on this film when I was just a boy of 11 years. He took me to work quite often, and during post production on The Boogens, he got stumped as to how the monster should sound. Well he comes to me and asks if I have any ideas? And I played around with sounds that scared me and I came with the following:

Breathing: Vampire Breathing

Heartbeat: Heartbeat sound sped up and slowed down repeatedly

Monster Roar: Dog&Cat Fight,slowed down,played backward

That roar was the most horrific thing you ever heard. We set up the sound rig in a hallway intersection in the building(Glenn Glenn Sound)and put speakers at the end of each hall. We turned out the lights so we had dark down all of the hallways(like being in a mine)and played the sound from random directions....even though we know we were alone in the building,Me,My Dad,and a co-worker of his,none of us wanted to walk down into the dark to turn on the light alone. We were all scared out of our minds. Well, my Dad used the sound fx I came up with and gave me $50 for my work. And that was my start in the movie business at age 11.

An old mining town in the American West harbors a deadly, 70-year secret, one that is about to be awakened when its silver mine is re-opened.

'The Boogens' is a largely-forgotten classic B-grade horror film with a title that suggests monsters emerging from people's noses and inflicting green, slimy terror. Thankfully, that idea is light years wide of the mark, the film instead occupying the 'monsters beneath the ground' category, predating the silliness of the more well-known 'Tremors' franchise by 9 years. In fact, though its modus operandi is principally just to provide shivers for 95 minutes, it's actually quite well-executed and has more to offer than at first might seem apparent. The script treats its audience with some intelligence by avoiding gratuitous blood-splattering early on, instead allowing the story and the menace to develop at a meaningful pace. This in turn allows us time to get to know the principal characters, who are fairly well-drawn and likable, thanks to the naturalistic performances of Fred McCarren, Rebecca Balding, Anne-Marie Martin and Jeff Harlan - as opposed to the performance of Jon Lormer, who gives his best 'mad loon' acting as the crazed local who knows what's happening but isn't very forthcoming with the details. Of course, the cynic might argue that keeping the monsters of the piece out of the limelight for as long as possible is more to do with the limitations of the practical effects budget, and it's true that once they do appear, they don't stand up to 21st Century scrutiny. However director James L. Conway, who would go on to work on a number of high-profile shows (Star Trek fans should be familiar with his efforts), knows how to make the best of limited resources and accentuating the production's strengths, for example, drawing rising tension from good lighting and suggestions of menace just beyond vision with well-placed camera angles and good cutting - which is probably just another way of saying that you see the characters more than the monsters, but this leads to a good build up of suspense, and that when something nasty happens to one of the leads, it makes an impact. These are the hallmarks of a decent film and they elevate 'The Boogens' as far as I'm concerned to greater heights - doubtless also the reason why Stephen King gave it the thumbs up upon its release.

The film is also helped by some very good choices for location backdrops, from the sleepy mountain town featured (Park City, Utah, according to the end credits) to the presumably authentic mine entrance. The sense of isolation is helped by the rolling hills and coating of snow to make it clear that civilisation, and therefore help when the Boogens hit the fan, is far distant. The musical score provided by Bob Summers is fairly unmemorable, but it fits the bill, boosting tension where appropriate. Finally, special note has to be made of the dog who played Tiger the poodle, the mischievous pet of one of the leads. Between the obvious talents this dog had to respond on cue to verbal and visual stimulus and the committed efforts off-screen to get him to do so, Tiger is very much a character in his own right, practically stealing the show - and not in a cheesy Disney way, either.

'The Boogens' was for me a pleasant surprise, very much surpassing my expectations, given that it could so easily have been an unintelligent exploitation gorefest. Genre fans should definitely check it out, possibly fogging up their lenses a little when the Boogens hit centre-stage.

Granted when we finally get to see the creatures, they are laughable, but the makers had the foresight to not unveil the monsters until the credits where about to role. That may not appeal to others, but trust me, you'll be happy that they waited.

The story is solid as there aren't any gaping plot holes like so many horror films. The characters are genuine and easily related with.

The plot has four men opening up a deserted mine, which allows the title creatures freedom to kill. There are several nail-biting scenes that are handled well, and the actors are all capable. Fred McCarren and Jeff Harlan are splendid as the young miners, and Sledgehammer's Anne-Marie Martin chews up a good ten minutes of terror as she tries to fight off a boogen.

I fell for Rebecca Balding after watching this, as she has that sexy but sensitive girl-next-door quality lost on so many actresses.

You can't go wrong with this film, I urge you to pick it up.

The "Boogens" are scaly monsters that look somewhat like giant turtles with lots of sharp, nasty teeth. They are released from an abandoned, boarded-up silver mine in Colorado and proceed to do away with character after character. Only one homeless, seemingly pointless knows how to stop them.... I first saw "The Boogens" when I was 10 or 11. Loved it then, loved it now. Sure the plot is nothing new but it's fast paced,well-acted, suspenseful, and humorous. it kind of reminds me of "Tremors" in that it doesn't take itself too seriously but boasts some genuinely suspenseful scenes and slings a little bit of gore in our face. Sure once the boogens themselves show up they're nothing flashy but the director maintains tension (And wisely shows only the boogen's tentacles throughout most of the film)and the ending seems a bit rushed but I still had a blast watching it and re-living a piece of my childhood while doing so.If you liked this film, I recommend you see "The strangeness" a low-budget flick which is also about a tentacled-monster haunting a long-abandoned mine. It was clearly inspired by this film. A classic piece of 80's cheese recommended for horror fans!

A group of four mine surveyors are hired to explore a long abandoned silver mine to see if whether or not it is worth reopening. Two of the men, along with a girlfriend and her best friend, rent a secluded cabin not too far from the mine, but soon find out the hard way that they've released strange, tentacled creatures which once again stalk people in the tunnels, as well as their cabin's basement.

Like other cult films such as "The Boogeyman" I had a real hard time writing this review, because for some reason I had a lot of trouble putting my finger on exactly why I liked this movie, despite the fact it gives plenty of reasons not to. There are plot holes galore, with one blatant example being why would the miners have dug tunnels from the mine to the town's houses? The script is the standard B-movie issue, "let's all line up for a slaughter in the climax" type of formula, although there is a good laugh here and there, and sort of a good rapport between Balding and McCarren. The cast does a fairly good job with the material they're given, with Balding stealing the show with her perky, big-eyed charismatic charm, and "Creepshow" icon Jon ("I want my cake!") Lormer standing out whenever given the screen.

Director Conway does give this movie a creepy edge, showing ominous point-of-view shots from the creatures quietly stalking their victims, and he wisely leaves what they look like up to the imagination of the audience up until the climax. Unfortunately in the end the monster special effects aren't up to the task, and when you do finally get a good look at them you just have to laugh. They're very imaginative but look too phony and turtle-like to be taken seriously, one wonders how this film might have gotten more overall notice if they worked a little harder on them? Given the same cast, director, better monster FX and a more thoughtful script this could have been a monster movie classic.

7 out of 10, you need to be a forgiving sort to enjoy this film despite of its many flaws, but for some it will still manage to strike the right chords.

After hearing so much about The Boogens I finally got to see it, and felt very disappointed. Everyone is always saying how good it is, but for the most part I found it boring. The first half is dedicated to building up characters but it's very tediously done and not really necessary for such a horror film, because at the end we don't care for them anyway. There are a few good scenes though. I like the scene with the dog when he's being chased by the monster. The part where he hides behind the bin is hilarious! But that's not enough to save the film. We don't get to see the "Boogens" themselves very much, and when we do they are in darkness. Normally that wouldn't bother me, if the rest of the film was interesting. Sadly it isn't.

Overall, I don't think The Boogens is anything special, there are much better monster/horror flicks out there such as The Deadly Spawn or Tremors - watch those instead.

The Boogens is a good fright flick. It plays well on the fear of dark abandon mine shafts, and creepy old buildings. I gave it a "7" out of ten - mostly because of the effectiveness that the movie sets in its atmosphere, from the opening sequence of old photographs and news stories that set the stage for the movie, to the ending - which I found really funny - in a good sort of B-movie way.

Being in Australia The Boogens was not really a movie that i had seen or heard of before researching horror films from the 80's. For Americans i think this was a TV movie that impacted most kids that saw it at the time and hence leaves fonds memories of being scared.

I knew what i was getting into when i went into this - a very early 80's film with dud monster effects. What i was surprised at was for a slow burning movie i actually became quite immersed. First of there was a layer of suspense that was quite well executed and the characters themselves seemed very 'normal' compared to the models that litter our movies these days. The story, though basic, was creepy and i have to say i fell in love with Tiger the dog who really does in many ways steal the the entire movie away from the cast.

The only real kick to the teeth here is what others have commented in relation to the monsters themselves. With a lot of POV shots, tentacles and a water scene that was quite well shot the monster for the large part is not shown on screen and for good reason. I know this was a low budget TV production but movies such as The Deadly Spawn, which was incredibly low budget, did a much better job with there creatures. As another poster commented the creature looks like a hybrid of a sea turtle and octopus and strangely has the most cute fake dow like eyes hahaha. Simple fact is it looks like a rubber toy and when shown on screen it doesn't really do anything but sit there.

As most would know if you make a monster movie and have a huge set up with it and it looks fake it can ruin the whole experience of what came before it and The Boogens nearly does this.

I appreciate the budget restraints and for the most past the director did an excellent job of working around it but this will be only a one time watch for me and soon to be long forgotten

This was the first horror film my parents ever took me to in a movie theater. I was only 11 yrs old when I first watched this film, and I remained mentally scarred for many years to follow. (I couldn't enter the garage by myself without first looking under our car to check for teeth and tentacles). This is certainly a silly movie by today's horror standards, but scary enough to give any child nightmares for awhile. Come on folks and watch it with your kids!

Here's an odd one: plot development is decidedly lackadaisical, such that the film is almost half over before it starts to feel like it's slowly begun to pick up. In the interval, we get expository dialogue and scene writing that's at most indirectly tied to the predominant narrative, but somehow a lot of it is weirdly endearing... or even funny? (Not all, mind you - there's some tired, passing ableism, and some crude lines that just don't land.) Of course, for a monster movie, even one in which visualization thereof is pointedly reserved for much later in the runtime, it doesn't necessarily speak well to the picture that the horror element rears its head only a few times and very briefly for the first two-thirds of the length. To that point, I assume it was concern for a low budget that so heavily restricted the realization of any abnormal goings-on. With this said, 'The boogens' does manage to be enjoyable, largely on account of charming characters and cast members - though by the same token, this isn't why we're watching it.

In fact given such piecemeal, unbothered development, and the way the horror element is so emphatically shoved into a small corner, to no small extent this comes across as a made-for-TV movie. It distinctly feels like the type of flick that might have aired on ABC with minimal spookiness lest the delicate sensibilities of the Average American Family be overwhelmed. But this is clearly not the case as we note "R"-rated content, so what happened here? All the elements are present for a low-grade genre flick of at least some entertainment, and so it is in its way, yet David O'Malley and Jim Kouf's screenplay minimizes the blood and violence seemingly as much as it can.

For what it's worth, while hardly the pinnacle of the genre, I think everything looks and sounds good. The filming locations are lovely, and the production design and art direction strike me as solid. Any effects on hand look good, including blood; if slightly kitschy, Paul Hipp's cinematography and the creature design are both just fine. Again, I quite like the cast; Rebecca Balding, Fred McCarren, and Anne-Marie Martin, among others, actually do a really great job. All the contributions of those behind the scenes are splendid. And while the horror aspect is broadly pushed back to the very last segment of the film, the last 10-20 minutes are, I'm pleased to say, fairly exciting and well done. Even if we can easily predict who is going to survive by the end of the movie, 'The boogens' is ultimately a good bit of fun.

It's not unfair to say, however, that this probably won't find especial favor with the average viewer. I think I tend to be rather generous and open-minded when it comes to the movies I watch, and I exacted unexpected enjoyment from the substantial portion that was just interactions between the chief characters, well before the climax. I don't think for one moment this will hold true for most folks. All told I think this manages to be slightly better than average in my book, though I'd hardly begrudge anyone who thought lesser of it. 'The boogens' is not an essential watch by any means, but as far as little-known monster flicks of yesteryear go, this isn't half bad.

With the advent of cheap CGI, a lost art has been created: the monster movie, sans monster. Creating a monster in the olden days was expensive. Having a good-looking puppet, or dare I say even something animatronic, would cost several hundreds if not multiple thousands of dollars, and could even require hiring a specialist to operate the creature. A lot of these older movies just didn't have the budget or the connections for that sort of thing.

The Boogens is one of those monster movies -- it's 90 minutes long, but for the first 75-80 of those minutes, the identity of the monster is intentionally mysterious. All you really get to see are first-person POV shots of... well, it could be anything, really. Does it have arms? Legs? Teeth? Claws? Wings? Is it large, small? There's no way to tell. It's always too dark, the camera cuts are too quick, the body is obscured, or something else will prevent you from getting any sorts of clues as to what this monster looks like or what it can do.

The movie tries to fill that void with stronger characters, and admittedly, the cast here isn't bad. There's some fun banter and decent characterization in the long, slow lead up to the creature's big reveal. But it just isn't enough. I eventually found myself getting bored, waiting for literally anything to happen. And that fun banter? Sometimes it's laid on just a little too thick.

The Boogens finally slams on the gas pedal in the last ten minutes, but for all the setup the payoff feels thin and rushed. After over an hour of tense disappearances and multiple trips in to a local cave system, suddenly It's a race against a monster we've only just barely been introduced to. It doesn't help that when the creature is finally given the spotlight, I found it to look more silly than scary... and maybe even a little cute.

The Boogens is... tolerable, but not great. As a horror movie, it's just not very suspenseful. But you could do worse. That's the best endorsement I can give it.

A cute romp through the early eighties horror genre. This movie was one of the favorite films of Michael on the Bob Newhart show. Anyway, loads of fun for the fan of the effervescent rebecca balding, (see also Silent Scream), with a fairly scary looking monster, too.

The key question that immediately raises itself when noticing a monster-movie called "The Boogens" is of course: what exactly is a Boogens and what does it look like? Well, even after just having finished the film I'm still not entirely sure if I can give a proper definition for the titular critters. Apparently the Boogens are some sort of carnivorous and prehistoric (?) monsters that live underneath mines, though seemingly in one sole Utah silver mine exclusively, and they can perfectly survive 70 years without any type of food. As for what they look like, I nearly feared never knowing that, neither, since the things are never properly shown until very late into the film. But try and imagine yourself what the hybrid baby of a sea turtle and an alien would look like and you'll probably come close. Anyways, as much as I admire cheesy and low-budget 80's horror, there's a good reason why this particular film is still so obscure whereas other contemporary genre efforts received fancy DVD-releases in the meantime already. This decade simply has much better outings to offer, like "The Deadly Spawn", "Night of the Creeps", "Tremors" and "From Beyond", to name just a couple of titles. The general complaints regarding "The Boogens" are more than justified. It takes far too long before the excitement kicks in, and when the monsters do eventually begin to devour their victims one after another it's actually too little too late to safe the film. The story nonetheless opens promisingly, with an atmospheric montage of old pictures and newspaper headlines involving an old silver mine located in Utah. The headlines indicate that a continuous series of mysterious occurrences and deadly accidents eventually led to the mine's closure in 1912. Now, over 70 years later, the new owners plan to re-open the shafts and already hired a duo of young miners to work for them. The works and explosions cause the mine's monstrous inhabitants to awake again and you can imagine the appetite they built up in all these years. The locations are quite atmospheric and, even though they are your averagely babbling and loud-mouthed youngsters, the main characters are somehow amiable. They talk about sex non-stop and make one stupid decision after another, yet for some reason you don't wish for them to die quick and painfully. That's quite odd for stereotypical 80's horror teen-characters, is it not? Still, regardless of these positive factors, the total lack of excitement during the first full hour is unforgivable. If you have a weakness for obscure and cheesy 80's madness, you might want to hunt down a copy after all. If not, it's really not worth browsing through Ebay on a daily basis hoping to stumble upon an original copy on VHS.

Mark (Fred McCarren) and Roger (Jeff Harlan) are a couple of young guys working for a company reopening a closed mine. Roger is excited that his girlfriend Jessica (Anne-Marie Martin) is coming to spend the winter with him and she brings along Trish (Rebecca Balding). What they don't know is that their dynamiting in the old mine has allowed some creepy monsters to escape. I saw this when it first belatedly hit video in the mid-90s and wasn't too impressed. My feelings are pretty much the same 15 years later. The film has some great locations, good cast and cool monsters. Unfortunately, it unfolds in a manner than never takes advantage of any of them. One would think most of the scary events would take place in the mine, but they all center in the house the kids are staying at miles away (tunnels exist under the land). Balding, who has just escaped housebound horror the year before with SILENT SCREAM (1980), is good in the lead but has very little to do. Hell, the cliché library research bit doesn't even show her uncovering anything big. Even the "scary old townie" character doesn't get much to do. THE BOOGENS is still MIA on DVD, but Turner Classic Movies recently ran a great letterboxed print that opens with the old Paramount logo.

This film is astoundingly dull and slow-paced. If you know what filler or padding is, this is what 90% of this movie is. It was obviously made by someone who wanted to make a monster movie but had to work on a tiny budget, so they barely show any scenes of an actual monster, but pad out the film with scenes of people standing around looking scared when they hear noises, or empty dialogue and conversation between characters. They should've called it The Seinfield Movie, because it feels like a movie about nothing.

Some men look into reopening a mine that has been closed for 70 years in northwest Colorado, yet it was shut down for a good reason and the people soon find out why when folks start horrifically dying.

"The Boogens" (1981) is a small town creature feature in the vein of "Without Warning" (1980) and "The Being" (1981), as well as the later "The Nest" (1987) and "Slugs" (1988), all of which were made in the tradition of "The Blob" (1958). This one was produced for a paltry $600,000, but it's quite well done considering the limited resources. You can't beat the snowy Rocky Mountain milieu and the cast is highlighted by jaw-dropping Anne-Marie Martin as Jess, whom you might remember from her memorable role in the Buck Rogers episode "Twiki is Missing" from a year prior.

Rebecca Balding plays the lesser woman as Trish, but she curiously turns out to have the meatier role. She and the director fell in love on set and married right after the film was made in February, 1981. They were together until her death in July, 2022, due to ovarian cancer.

While the set-up is great, the creators fumble the ball in the last act as far as a key person being removed from the proceedings, which makes the last 20 minutes less-than-compelling. Thankfully, the creature effects are good. Although it looks cute when finally revealed, it's quite horrifying when it opens its maw.

I've heard the rumor that "the boogens" is miner terminology for the fear some miners experience after spending too much time deep in the earth. Actually, it was just a silly word screenwriter David O'Malley made up based on "boogeyman." He originally intended to call the flick "The Boogeyman," but another film by that name debuted in 1980 while he was still working on the script; hence, the dubious contraction.

The film runs about 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Park City, Utah, which is roughly 125 miles from the northwest border of Colorado and about 24 miles east of Salt Lake City.

GRADE: B-

It's not unusual for a horror film to feature one or two characters so irritating that they fully warrant a painful demise, and The Boogens is no exception, with Roger, played by Jeff Harlan, being the film's most deserving ass-hat; this particular film goes one step further, however, by even including a dog so obnoxious that you'll be cheering when it eventually meets its fate.

The creatures responsible for the doggy's death are 'Boogens', vicious subterranean monsters that are accidentally set free by a group of miners when they reopen an old Colorado silver mine. Once loose, the ravenous critters crawl along tunnels that connect to the house currently occupied by Roger, his pal Mark (Fred McCarren), their pretty girlfriends Vicky and Trish (Anne-Marie Martin and Rebecca Balding), and the movie's maddening mutt Tiger.

The insufferably inane 'jokes' and puerile sex-chat from Roger are enough to make you want to switch off, but with the film also dragging its heels regarding actual monster fun, it really is a bit of a chore to get to the end. The film is almost over before the creatures are shown in their entirety and, to be honest, they're really not worth the wait—rubber slug/turtle thingies with random tentacles and claws; they're so crap, one can hardly blame the film-makers for keeping them out of sight for as long as possible.

Making the ride a little bit easier to bear are Martin and Balding, who provide a bit of eye-candy to prevent total boredom setting in. Balding very kindly bares her butt and boobs, but Martin keeps herself covered, even when being chased around the house wearing nothing but a bath towel.

This is one of those films that many beat up on because of its' rather silly title. Despite some bad moments, (and a few bad actors) this movie actually delivers the goods. The Boogens themselves look like oversized turtles with tentacles for arms and a claw coming out of their backside. Silly? yes...but yet there's a few scares here. A scene with a Boogen underneath someone's car is particularly memorable.

This is a good midnight movie: campy and definitely of 'B' origin but surprisingly enjoyable with a healthy amount of shock and gore to please any bad horror movie buff.

Four miners unknowingly unleash evil monsters which roam underground seeking to kill anyone who gets near them.

The movie starts with a group of four young people decide to rent out a house in snowy mountains, two of which are miners. A team of them decides to open up a mine in the area that has been closed since 1922 when a group of miners were trapped during a cave in. As soon as they blow up a closed off section of the mine, we see that something not human has been unleashed. As the days go by, the monster appears to have travelled underground from the mine all the way to the house the four main characters have rented out. The body count rises as the crew realizes they may have come across an evil that should have stayed locked away.

The Boogens was an extremely effective early 80's horror flick for me. It had a great filming location of the snowy landscape of Utah and that feeling of cold isolation. The death scenes were done well in terms of gore and stalking done by the creatures. Jessica's murder stands out in my memory as being really effective. I also thought the background music was also extremely effective, a mix between My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th.

The characters for the most part were fleshed out well, and the acting didn't get in the way negatively of the story they were trying to tell. Anne Marie Martin (also known as Eddie Benton) caught my eye right away after seeing her amazing performance in Prom Night. She plays a much different character in this one, but still pulled it off. Rebecca Balding as main final girl Trish did a solid job with very little to work with.

The Boogens is definitely one of those unknown flicks in the horror genre I'd say, but it's worth seeking out for it's eerie atmosphere and the cutest dog ever on screen. With such a low budget, I thought the director did a great job.

7/10