Steineded How sad is this?

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Sam Panico If an old man tells you to not open the old mine, you should just leave the old mine closed. No one tells you these sorts of things without a reason. After all, there could be turtle creatures lurking in there, ready to kill everyone.Our friends at Jensen Farley Productions took a break from In Search of Historic Jesus and The Outer Space Connection to produce this film that is a strange mix between 1950's science fiction and a slasher. It's also filled with one of the horniest male characters in the history of 1980's horror and that's saying plenty.Awhile back, a silver mine closed after everyone in it but one person died. Brian Deering (John Crawford, The Towering Inferno) and Dan Ostroff are in town to make it happen, along with two young guys, Roger Lowrie and Mark Kinner. They're making the closed mine modern and also find tons of bones, but no one complete skeleton. It's at this point that I would move on to the next mine. But I'm not in The Boogens. I'm just a viewer. And I'm also a viewer who was five beers in at the drive-in while watching it.Roger and Mark are soon joined by Mark's girl Jessica (Anne-Marie Martin, Prom Night, the TV version of Dr. Strange) and another girl named Trish (Rebecca Balding, Silent Scream). While this is all going on, the landlady comes to open up their house, hits a deer, goes into a ditch, walks to the house in the freezing cold and then gets pulled into the basement and killed by what we can only assume is a Boogen.Roger has, by now, been the horniest dude ever and mentioned how many times he's going to have sex with Jessica and how long it's been since they have had sex (twelve days, trust me, I heard it a hundred times). Through whim of fate, Mark and Trish also hook up and we're treated to some heavy petting. But as Dr. Dealgood once told to the fine folks of Bartertown, "Dying time is here!"Also: Greenwalt (Jon Lormer, who gets his cake in Creepshow) is sneaking around and it's revealed that his father was the lone survivor of the mine. He's gonna blow up the mine real good to get rid of the Boogens.This movie moves at a glacial pace, with the last fifteen minutes finally being the energetic fun that Stephen King's blurb about it promised. That is, if you find turtle monsters scary. Or whatever that are.Director James L. Conway also directed Hangar 18, as well as numerous TV shows (he's currently working on Orville and The Magicians, was a producer on Charmed and even married Rebecca Balding during the filming).

James Parrish THE BOOGENS A Review by JPWhy is it they don't make horror films anymore that engage the audience to a point that they find themselves shouting at the screen? With the exception of collective gasps & jerks in "Annabelle", the last I saw that fit a "yell-at-the-screen" description was in 1998 and directed by Steve Miner – who directed some ever-present/loved scary flicks from my childhood. But the '98 film and Mr. Miner's credits are different reviews.As for "The Boogens", there was a quote from Stephen King on the cover which read "worth seeing" (the overall impression was worded a bit more eloquently). The only person I recognized from this 1981 feature was the copied & pasted "Prom Night" (1980) version of "Carrie's" nemesis played by Anne-Marie Martin (who did nicely in this as a good guy). She was admittedly a beyotch in "Prom Night" and perhaps one of the only redeeming qualities of that stinker. There was even a stinker remake… *Shudder* But I digress… Sitting back to watch "The Boogens"-which is a single letter exchange away from a laughable title (so it does prompt at least a snicker) – and going in with zero expectations, I was quickly drawn into the simple, popcorn-scary-movie plot: a long-abandoned/collapsed mine is cleared & re-opened – setting loose…"something" deadly. Two couples (2 mine workers & their love interests) lodge at a house in the super-creepy basement of which the mine is attached. And we're off! Moody music & a clear bit of effort in the cinematography department – not to mention a beautiful & ominous location – set the stage for competent, attractive (the leads at least) actors delivering believable, often humorous lines. The annoyingly-arrogant & destructive poodle was surprisingly a better actor than many humans (some on the "A" list). The story never deludes itself to be something it's not. It's proudly a monster-in-the-basement scary flick. I will admit the tension built was much grander than the payoff. Had they kept the monster off-camera for the entire 90 or so minutes, it might have remained as suspenseful—but then it would've been a tease. Having said that, this film was made in the era of practical effects, so even a sock puppet would exude more reality than most CG creations. The scares are still effective. It is not overly-gory or boob-intensive. I gave a crap for the characters, so my attention was held. Though the occasional "must-put-my-hand-in-the-obvious-red-pool" horror cliché is still present (and the "monster" that screams "LOW BUDGET!"), I would still recommend this unfortunately-titled gem to fellow horror aficionados!Grade: Better than most from that era—especially another mine-set (LOL) snooze-fest from that very year (& same distributor): "My Bloody Valentine" …Yes, I know this also has a remake. Also yes: "The Boogens" is better than that version too.

TheBlueHairedLawyer Years ago there was a small town where the main employer was a large silver mine. When a bizarre accident occurs, the mine is shut down, leaving the town near-empty.Years later, a group of friends go to spend the night at one of the houses. It has a bootleg mine in the basement below, and unknown to anyone but the freaky old man who hangs around the mine, there are strange mutant creatures living within that eat people; the old man calls them Boogens. The mine is re-opening and some of the workers find themselves trapped inside with the strange creatures. Who will survive? Oh, the suspense! Anyway, Boogens isn't very scary, but for its time it isn't a bad movie, it's a little funny and creepy and at least stays entertaining the whole way through. My little brother says that boogens are just mutated nose boogers that grew large and needed a much bigger cave than noses, so they moved into the mine. I think the boogens were just supposed to be a made-up fantasy creature species or mutants.The soundtrack was creepy and eerie, the acting was decent, the scenery was great and you've gotta admit, the plot sure is original! If you crossed My Bloody Valentine (1981) with Gremlins (1985), you'd get this. The beginning credits with the old newspapers were pretty cool and different as well. It's overall a pretty good horror movie.

BA_Harrison 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.