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Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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Trailer available at the bottom of this page
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Directed
by
Anthony C Ferrante Writing
Credits Anthony C Ferrante I had seen the trailer for Boo and it looked good, so I was looking forward to seeing the film in its entirety. Seeing it, at last though, and in its entirety, I was entirely disappointed.
Boo was filmed at the Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles and I cannot think of a better setting. It is a very spooky looking place and just oozes atmosphere. The special effects in Boo were very good too and when people's fingers started to fall off, it looked like peoples fingers were falling off. When people exploded, it looked like they really had exploded, and the resultant debris was suitably sickening.
So, all of this being said, why didn't I enjoy the film? It's hard to put my finger on it, but I think the main problem was that I didn't find the characters believable. When they acted scared, that was just it, I could see that they were acting. For me it was more like watching someone put on a show than watching a film, and I never got fully drawn into the story. I also didn't care for the characters, and when something bad was happening to them, or it looked like it would be shortly, I just didn't care because none of them were real enough, or likeable enough, for it to matter to me - except the dog. I liked the dog.
The basic story is this:
Two college couples - Freddy and Marie, and Kevin and Jessie, decide to spend Halloween at the deserted Vista Mira Hospital. What the girls don't realize is that the guys have sent their friend Emmett ahead of them to prepare a few Halloween surprises. Of course, when the gang arrive at Vista Mira there is no sign of either Emmett, or his dog Duchess, and some of the Halloween surprises seem just a little too real. It is around this time that we find out that Jessie, rather conveniently, is psychic - good for her.
Also trapped in the creepy corridors of the hospital: Allan, who is looking for his sister, who went there with some friends and then vanished along with them; Meg - the aforementioned sister - and a police officer, named Arlo Baines, that looks a bit like a pimp from a bad 70's film. Arlo is there because he feels obligated to look-out for Allan and Meg. He used to partner with their dead father, who was also a cop. The only other characters in attendance are the ghosts.
Everyone eventually ends up on the third floor that used to house the mental patients, and once there, find that they are trapped.
The DVD does have some bonus material included: The Making of Boo, Inside the Special Effects of Boo, Intensive Scare: Tales of the Linda Vista Hospital, and deleted, alternative, and extended scenes, and a trailer.
I might not have been impressed by Boo, but I did enjoy the short documentary Intensive Scare:Tales of the Linda Vista Hospital. In it, cast and crew recount their own strange experiences on set during the making of Boo.
There is the option of hearing the filmmaker's commentary while you watch the film. English subtitles are included for the hard of hearing and, for the not so hard of hearing, there is a choice of Dolby Digital 5:1 surround sound, or Dolby Digital 2:0 stereo.
Boo! Cast Trish
Coren
.... Jessie Holden Watch The Trailer This
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