Mr. Boogedy/Bride of Boogedy

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I don't hear a whole lot of talk about it anymore, but back when I was a youngin', Disney had things taken over in a whole different way. Our weekday afternoons would consist of the 'Disney Afternoon'​ from 3:00-5:00, and then on weekends, there was 'The Magical World of Disney' (later renamed to 'The Wonderful World of Disney' for whatever reason).

Often, 'Magical/Wonderful World' would play Disney's collection of theatrical releases, but much of the early stuff was material made for the show. A couple that stand out as a memory from my own childhood are 'Mr. Boogedy', which appropriately aired on 4/20 of 1986, and its sequel, 'Bride of Boogedy', about a year later. Basically, what we have here is Disney's attempt at pulling off a story about the Boogeyman. It all worked pretty well for a straight-to-TV thing at the time, but at this point I just wanna bring it to people's attention as something pretty much in the realm of "so bad it's good".

'Mr. Boogedy' introduces us to the Davis family, who are excited to be moving to the fictional Lucifer Falls, New England, which may as well be "Nilbog". Carlton (Richard Masur) is a novelty salesman who's hoping to capitalize on interested customers, being the only novelty salespeople for hundreds of miles once they move. Together with his wife, Eloise (Mimi Kennedy) and kids, Jennifer, Corwin and Aurie (Kristy Swanson, David Faustino and Benjamin Gregory, respectively) they make the move, only to find themselves in what could be a haunted house.

At first, the rest of the family relates the strange goings on to the father playing practical jokes. But soon they find out there's a whole, dark history to a few ghosts who haunt this house, including Mr. Boogedy (Howard Witt) who a harbinger named Neil Witherspoon (John Astin) forewarned them about upon their arrival. I won't give away much more than that, but the history to these ghosts are dark enough that you kind of have to wonder what was going through their minds at the time. This, combined with the spectacularly bad visual effects of 80's TV and a cast of familiar actors have allowed 'Mr. Boogedy' to develop a sort of cult following in its ridiculousness.

Following it up a year later was the one I remembered just a bit more (probably due to watching the hell out of it) was 'Bride of Boogedy'. Richard Masur and Mimi Kennedy return to play the roles of the parents, but the only kid to come back was David Faustino. Otherwise, Jennifer and Aurie have been replaced by Tammy Lauren and Joshua Rudoy, respectively. Since the events of the first film, the Davis family have become very well-known and respected throughout the small village of Lucifer Falls by all but one, a general store owner named Tom Lynch (Eugene Levy). He's essentially just a grump who things the gags Carlton sells are stupid.

Long story short, the spirit of Mr. Boogedy comes back through the dreams of the children, and eventually possesses Carlton in an attempt to get his cloak back, which is where his power comes from. His power, by the way, seems to be shooting green, explosive or electric lights from his hands that do various things. You don't really get what it is, it's just something that poses a threat. The whole "Bride" aspect of the title comes from Boogedy looking at Eloise as his long lost love, Marion (yeah, that old story, also see 'The Mummy' and 'The Haunting'). A lot of it is similar to the first one, but it does manage to have its differences, including giving us a sort of secondary villain in Mr. Lynch.

These were both released in the late 80's and since faded into obscurity. However, since Disney Plus came along, they have decided to give us both titles. They are an easy back-to-back watch, altogether adding up to about 2 hours and 15 minutes. If you're like me, and love looking for ridiculous movies that will make you laugh for all the wrong reasons, it's a solid watch. Terrible, but in all the best ways. It's all a pure, thick slice of 80's cheese, and may bring back fond, first-scare memories if you caught these on TV back in the day.

2/5

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