Bride of Boogedy (1987)

Last year I wrote an article for a website called Nerdbot about a “The Magical World of Disney” TV movie called Mr. Boogedy. For today’s edition of Forgotten TV and in recognition of it nearly being Halloween, I decided to watch and review the sequel to Mr. Boogedy, Bride of Boogedy. As we’ll soon find out, Bride of Boogedy is more like Child of Boogedy since it’s basically the same movie as the original, with little attention paid to the bride portion of the name.

The sequel to Mr. Boogedy reunites 60% of the Davis family from the original, with Richard Masur, Mimi Kennedy, and David Faustino reprising their roles as Carleton, Eloise, and Corwin Davis. Tammy Lauren replaces Kristy Swanson as oldest child Jennifer, which sounds like a downgrade but if you prefer your nostalgia with 100%+ less MAGA it’s a good swap. Tammy Lauren did a lot of TV in the 70s and 80s but since it’s October I’ll mention that she starred in Wishmaster alongside Robert Englund. Youngest child Aurie is now played by Joshua Rudoy from Harry and the Hendersons instead of Benji Gregory, so from Boogedy to the sequel you go from housemate of Alf to housemate of Bigfoot. A lot of new townspeople are introduced as well including Karen Kondazian as Madeileinska the fortune teller, and since this is an 80s movie they do not shy away from calling her a gypsy, the wonderful, sorely missed Vincent Schiavelli (Ghost) as Lazarus the gravedigger, Ray Girardin as Eloise’s brother Elmer, Leonard Frey (Fiddler on the Roof) as Walter Witherspoon, and Eugene Levy in the only humorless role I’ve ever seen him in as Tom Lynch. It’s never made explicit but I assume that Walter Witherspoon is supposed to be the son of John Astin’s Neil Witherspoon, as Walter now runs the historical society and on account of them having the same last name. That was a long paragraph full of stuff you could have gotten from IMDB so let’s move on.

From the jump the viewer is reminded that the Davis Family loves their pranks. Everybody gets into it, so when Uncle Elmer arrives from the city to try to talk Carleton into moving back and taking a big promotion, he’s accosted by Carleton, Eloise, Corwin, and Aurie all done up like ghouls and a massive fake spider is dropped on him. Everybody laughs because pranks were the pinnacle of 80s comedy. The beginning of the movie also reminds us that Boogedy was driven from the Davis house and his magical cloak was taken from him in the last movie, and if he were to, you know, come back there’s a good chance he still wants to shack up with the ghost widow Marian who he creeped all over in life. Jennifer, the only Davis with a normal first name, is visited by a vision of Boogedy in the woods on her walk home, who wails at her, “get out of my house!” Jennifer runs home terrified, and as usual nobody in the family buys her story that Boogedy has returned or takes her fear particularly seriously (although they do investigate). Given that the Davis family encountered ghosts in their home and banished one of them to a nether realm not too long ago, you’d think they’d display a touch more credulity in response to a claim that said banished ghost has returned, but no.

The event that sets the plot in motion in the sequel is the annual town carnival. Carleton takes on a leading role in the planning of the carnival and this infuriates Tom Lynch, who owns the general store and takes on a distinct “native New York City resident responding to anybody who hasn’t lived in the City for three generations” attitude towards Carleton. He hates the man with a passion, partially because he doesn’t like Carleton’s gag gift company horning in on the sales of two whole tables of gag gifts in the general store. Lucifer Falls already has a surplus of gag gifts in Lynch’s eyes. The Davises check out the new spot for their shop Gag City, located in a building that formerly housed a wax museum. The previous owner left in a hurry, so all of the old displays are still there. It is not explained why this movie takes place a year after the previous one and the Davises did not open their shop in the interim. Given that they moved to Lucifer Falls to open a shop then waited a year after arriving to do so, it’s not clear how they’ve been making ends meet. Anyway, Walter Witherspoon is there and so is Madeileinska the fortune teller, who gazes into her crystal ball and informs them that, “hey, you probably should have taken your daughter more seriously because Boogedy is coming, baby.” The Davis parents once again pay no heed! Zero heeds paid!

It’s Corwin and Aurie’s turn next to receive the incredibly obvious signs that Boogedy wasn’t vanished for good. They find themselves in the basement, where they discover a glowing green key. They surmise correctly that the glowing green key pairs with the glowing green frame that appears in the middle of the room, insert the key, and they end up in the cemetery where a statue of Boogedy comes to life. Their ghost buddy Jonathan shouts at them to escape and they wake up screaming in their beds. Carleton and Eloise think that the boys having identical simultaneous dreams it totally normal behavior, because misplaced skepticism is sort of their thing at this point. The boys visit the cemetery where they meet the gravedigger Lazarus, who shows them Mr. Boogedy’s grave and statue. Carleton and Eloise decide the way to dispel all of this Mr. Boogedy is back business is to throw a fake seance and this is when the poop really starts coating the fan.

During the fake seance Mr. Witherspoon calls for Boogedy to answer them, which occurs while Mr. Lynch is trying to knock out the power to the Davis’s store, leading to both Lynch and Carleton getting electrocuted. Carleton heads outside, encounters the green ball essence of Boogedy, and is possessed. Boogedy calls upon Carleton to locate his cloak.

Carleton is very obviously possessed, acting like a zombie and levitating in the house. Eloise continues not to buy any of it. He steals the widow Marian’s clothing from the historical society and gives the outfit to his wife to wear. Possessed Carleton chases his whole family into a bedroom and corners them, which is the point where uncle Elmer shows up wearing a gorilla suit. Everybody, including possessed Carleton thinks this terrible bit is hilarious, so much so that the possession is broken through the power of laughing at bad comedy, and glowing ball of Boogedy takes off through a window. Meanwhile, Lynch steals Boogedy’s cloak from the Davis house and now it’s his turn to be possessed. I forgot to mention Carleton found the cloak while he was possessed because at this point I’m just trying to get all of this out. Well he did.

It’s carnival time! We meet a little girl named Linda so now we know without a doubt this is the 80s because she’s the last little girl on Earth ever to be named Linda. Lynch zaps all of the wax figures left over in the store with green lightning and they come to life, tearing the carnival apart. As everybody tries to restore order Lynch goes to the cemetery and puts the cloak on the Boogedy statue, bringing Boogedy to life. Despite the fact that she received it from her possessed husband Eloise decides what the hell, I’ll wear Marian’s outfit to the carnival anyway, so when Boogedy shows up there he sees her in the outfit, thinks it’s Marian and grabs her. When Eloise gets zapped by Boogedy she gets bride of Frankenstein hair for no discernible reason except that the movie is called Bride of Boogedy. Boogedy disappears with Eloise, and now it’s time to finish up the movie.

Ghost Jonathan helps come up with a plan to get Eloise back and get rid of Boogedy for good. They use the basement key once again to transport to the graveyard, where they show up with daughter Jennifer also dressed like Marian. They manage to convince Boogedy she’s the real Marian, tug of war over Jennifer ensues, and Boogedy flies back into his statue, where he is trapped forever once again.

When I reviewed the first Mr. Boogedy I observed that it isn’t really clear who the movie is for. That’s still the case here, and I’ll add that with the sequel it’s not even clear why it exists. Given the title, you’d think it’s going to be about Boogedy reuniting with the ghost of widow Marian, who never even makes an appearance. Eloise and Jennifer are both presented as replacements, but not only is all of this shoehorned in to the last 10 minutes of the movie, it was made clear that Boogedy wanted Marian. The whole point of the first movie was that he was trapped in the house with her son and couldn’t get to her. Why he would accept a Marian replacement so readily makes no sense at all. Also like the first one, this movie debuted in April, far from Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I’ve seen Bride of Boogedy before but it doesn’t have the same sort of hold on me that the first one, a movie that truly scared me, does. It’s an unfortunate sequel that lacks any of the fun and relative coherence of the original. It should remain forgotten TV.

Did you watch Bride of Boogedy? It’s bad, right? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter. 

If you feel like you really need to see Bride of Boogedy you can rent it at the link below.