Ghost House Pictures & Boogeyman

Boogeyman is the second film produced by Ghost House Pictures, the genre label formed by producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert and Senator International. Ghost House Pictures is dedicated to producing commercial feature films with horror, sci-fi and fantasy themes. Raimi and Tapert are known for their distinctive, groundbreaking approach to the horror genre. It was their heritage of 1980s cult hits Evil Dead, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn, Darkman and Army of Darkness that raised the bar for all horror films. Tapert says he and Raimi saw the formation of Ghost House Pictures as "a great opportunity. Sam and I have always been fans of horror, so this is a return to our roots."

When Ghost House Pictures was formed, Senator had already optioned Boogeyman, which Tapert says immediately appealed to him and Raimi and their vision of making a film with a distinctive kind of horror, combining elements of American monster and Asian ghost movies. Set in rural Pennsylvania, largely in a run-down Victorian Gothic house, Boogeyman is a constantly escalating, Hollywood-style horror movie inspired by the psychologically-based storytelling of recent Japanese and Korean horror movies, like Dark Water, The Eye and Pulse.

Raimi and Tapert are again venturing into new aspects of the genre by branching away from the stereotypical monster movie category and giving Boogeyman a strong dramatic story based on a likeable character dealing with a terrifying problem.

Tapert notes, "We had been heavily influenced by Japanese ghost movies and by changing the original script to embrace some of the groundbreaking ideas coming out of Asia, we felt we could play on the ‘is it real or is it not?’ psychological aspects."

Raimi and Tapert’s unmatched horror track record is what attracted director Stephen Kay to the project. Kay confesses, "I’ve never done anything even remotely similar to a horror movie, but I love watching them. When this came to me and I was told Sam and Rob were the producers I said ‘well, if I’m going to be doing a horror movie, these are the guys to make a horror movie with."

Similarly, Raimi and Tapert felt that director Stephen Kay would bring something different to the movie, and elevate it from the typical horror genre style. Says Tapert, "We saw his previous movies and really liked the way he worked with actors. We thought we could give him the things that we knew how to do in the horror genre and he would bring something to it that was unique, which was his ability to work with actors and get performances in a genre that you just don’t expect those kinds of performances."

Boogeyman is a layered film, with exceptional horror frights and "don’t look" terrifying moments bolstered by characterization and storytelling strength more likely to be found in a psychological drama. Following the Japanese tradition, there’s skin crawling tension and intense, visceral frights, set in a compelling dramatic story. Raimi and Tapert told Stephen Kay that in addition to the tension and the emotional impact of drama, they wanted 13 big frights in the movie.

Kay describes Boogeyman as a coming-of-age horror story. "It’s a horror movie about Tim’s personal battle with fear," says the director. "The boogeyman is the personification of fear. He’s blurred, he’s ambiguous, he’s the unknown. He’s simultaneously a universal fear and an incredibly specific fear. He’s different for everybody, and this is Tim’s particular version."

Kay set out to create Tim as a real person, living in a real world, whose fears would be believable and therefore even scarier because they arise out of normal, ordinary things. Like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, Kay was able to create real people that audiences connect with and then let them get sucked into their terror.
"If you met Tim on the street in the daytime, you’d think he’s a good-looking, cool young guy," says the director. "If you went back to his house, you might not notice it at first but he’s got no closets and the bed is on the floor. If you were in a hotel with him at night, you’d probably notice some stranger stuff because now he’s out of his element and there’s a dust ruffle around the bed, the closet door might be partly open and he’ll find it hard to get to sleep."

Tapert says that on a metaphysical level, the movie is "a journey to try to overcome your childhood traumas and move into your adulthood. If you don’t find a way to deal with your childhood fears, they will continue to haunt you and influence your life and make you emotionally unable to grow up. Most of us move on, but Tim hasn’t. Something has impacted him tremendously and he has to confront it in order to have a normal life. Until he has that physical confrontation with his own personal boogeyman that he created as an eight-year-old boy, he’s not able to do those things that you need to do as an adult to live in the normal world."

Lead actor Barry Watson was thrilled about the opportunity to work with Raimi and Tapert. "I’m a big fan of their movies," he says. "I remember when I first saw Evil Dead and Evil Dead II - I loved them. Coincidentally, I bought the special edition DVD box set right before I got the part in this movie. When I heard that Stephen was attached to the film, I jumped at the opportunity. I said ‘put me on a plane to New Zealand!"

Kay and Tapert both believe that Watson brings a "nice guy" quality and a sense of realness to the role of Tim, which is crucial in getting the audience to believe in him enough to go with him on this journey. "The role required someone who is inherently likeable because his problems are fairly enormous and could turn people off," says Kay. "But Barry has made it real and understandable."

Watson says the role of Tim was challenging for him on two levels: "It's a tremendous challenge being in every scene. There’s a lot of work to do. And because of that, there's a greater sense of responsibility on my part. It was very emotional creating this journey for Tim to come to terms with himself and his problems. He held onto his childhood fears for so long that it's now time as an adult to deal with them."

Emily Deschanel enjoyed working on this film, particularly because of her character and because of Stephen Kay: "He’s really smart and he knows how to keep it light on set. He’s like a big kid. I think as a director you have to have a view of the world that is like a child’s, discovering things all the time, and I think he has that." She says of her character, Kate: "She’s a country girl and is very straightforward and says what she thinks. I think of her as the voice of reason. She brings in some common sense and the audience needs that because you’re not sure if Tim’s going crazy or if he’s really fighting the boogeyman. So, she kind of represents the audience and I like that."

Stephen Kay enjoyed being able to cast Emily against type. In a more conventional film, Kate would be cast as the girl next door who is innocent, open and understanding beyond reproach. And Emily’s not that. She’s a complicated woman and she's a complicated actress. She's very much in the moment and real. So her relationship becomes real and unpredictable and you don’t know where the character is going to end up."

As Tim’s girlfriend, Jessica, Australian actress Tory Mussett represents the good life Tim could be having if he would let go and move on from his fears. "She thinks she can save him from his troubles," says the actress, "but she discovers that he’s just too much work and it’s too hard for her. She likes him a lot and she spends a lot of the time trying to get him to love her and let her help him, but he’s lost in his fear, so she becomes very frustrated."

Working with Stephen Kay was a great experience for her. "Stephen is a fantastic director. He’s an actor, so he’s an actor’s director. He has a clear idea of what he wants and he’s very good at expressing that."

As Tim’s mother, Lucy Lawless relished playing such an influential, memorable character as Tim’s mother: "I was working in Europe and Rob Tapert called and asked if I wanted to play a drug-addled mother who gives up custody of her son. I’m all for playing those small gems of parts which are attention grabbing, colorful roles, rather than having to sustain a whole movie. This is one of those terrific little parts, so of course I grabbed it."

Nine year-old Skye McCole Bartusiak plays Franny and pays tribute to Stephen Kay: "He’s the youngest director I've ever worked with, so he’s a lot of fun," says the actress. "Sometimes you get directors who don’t understand how to talk to kids, but because Stephen has a daughter my age, he talked to me in kid language, so I think because of that I could give him more." Kay returns the compliment: "Skye is a very trusting actor. Her spirit is so open that if you give her a couple of little words and point her in a direction, she goes there. The dynamic between Franny and Tim is the emotional core of the movie, because if you’ve got a guy who’s dealing with issues created in his childhood, you need to have a child for him to work it through with."