Mr. Boogedy

Release Date: April 20, 1986

Watch Date: October 21, 2024

“The story follows the Davis family as they move to a small New England town. They just purchased an old home that the locals claim are haunted. Soon after moving in, the children hear stories from the locals on why their new home is haunted. Back when the town was founded an older pilgrim nicknamed Mr. Boogedy lived there. He hated children and would often scare them by screaming, “boogedy boogedy boo.” Mr. Boogedy may have hated children but was in love with a widow in town. In his pursuit of the woman, he becomes evil and cursed, or so the story goes…The kids do not believe the urban legend and return home only to be haunted by Mr. Boogedy, as he tries to scare them from his home.”

---

   Bob looked for a kid friendly Halloween movie and this was literally the first on that popped up on Disney+ so he picked it.

   I’m not sure if he regrets it or not.

   I did learn that I’m not the parent that protects from monsters though, so that was a fun discovery. I got to stretch out on the couch while two entertained, but anxious, children crowded their dad. It’s not a bad feeling.

   Mr. Boogedy is a Disney original film from the 80s. That means it had like an hour time slot it could fill, and not a huge production budget. And it shows. Most of the movie is just one very uncool set of parents trying to show off very lame practical jokes that they apparently…sell? To their kids. We never see either of them at the storefront that I’m assuming they purchased. It would be weird to move your entire life just to Lucifer Falls but not give yourself anyway to provide for yourself.

   Mr. Boogedy is, therefore, only seen for about 2 minutes. The ghosts we do see are pleasant. They add -eth to random words. They cry a lot and steal teddy bears. The worst Mr. Boogedy does is make people stuck, or float, or leave footsteps on the wall. I’m not really sure what the purpose of that last one was. Anyways, he’s defeated by a vacuum, but not before he enchants the vacuum to attack a kid – which is probably going to make future vacuuming even more difficult for my kids than it already is (they’re very noise sensitive and so vacuum day is pretty much a warzone in our home).

   I wasn’t expecting much, and I don’t think Bob was either. So I can’t really say it disappointed, because it definitely met expectations. I just wouldn’t call it…good? So if your goal is to watch some classic made for television Disney movies, I wouldn’t skip it, but if you’re trying to set the Halloween mood for anyone above the age of 10? There’s probably better things to watch.