According to an interview with producer Rob Tapert over at SciFiWire, the ending for BOOGEYMAN was determined by test audiences. Now before you go running in horror give the man a chance to explain:
“It’s been the largest struggle on the project. Each movie has its own challenges that are unique unto it. In this particular case, the boogeyman—How much do we show? When do we show him?—all of those questions needed to be answered. And, ideally, we’ve answered them in what is hopefully the most satisfying fashion.”
How satisfying you ask? He goes on:
What if [I] told you test audiences decided it? Sad as that is, because I think in [director Stephen Kay’s] mind, he would have loved to have kept this all to the very end of the movie. Even after we show the boogeyman, he would have liked to put it back into a psychological realm. But the horror audience just couldn’t go there with him. So when you tried to tell them something different at the end of the movie, then what they had witnessed in the last 10 minutes just wasn’t working.
This is tough for me to admit, but it sounds like they made the right call there. Especially with the images of the flick that we’ve seen, I’d be pretty pissed if it all came down to a just a dream type explanation. Horror needs more real monsters these days, and this one looks like a humdinger. Screw with that, and Xena might kick their ass!
You can click here for more of the interview and some nifty stuff about early draft ideas that got squashed by budget constraints. Hell, the article is like Hollywood Production Realities101.
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