In John Carpenter’s classic horror film Halloween the killer Michael Myers is sometimes rferred to as the Boogeyman. Folklore’s boogey-man or bogyman is a kind of dark fairy most often used to frighten ornery children. The term was originally applied to the devil and also used for bogies who would steal children and drag them to hell for grisly torments. The word bogey itself may have been derived from a Middle English term for bluster or brag. Boogey-men are often described as shadowy black figures who can become threatening black dogs, tree trunks, or monsters, with icy fingers and glowing yellow eyes. They are believed to lurk in cellars, attics, cupboards, caves, hollow tree trunks, and pratically any dark and dank place. In one story boogey-men tormented a family in Shropshire. These two resembled a little old man and woman. When the family got sick and tired of bedeviled by the two, they decided to move, only to have those quarrelsome bogeys follow them to their new residence. Looking through a keyhole at night meant you might catch a glimpse of the boogey-man looking right back at you. One of the most damous of these was old Bloody-bones, or Rawhead Rex. This nasty goblin hid in a cupboard, usually behind the stairs. If you glimpsed old Bloody-bones you would see the monster standing over a pile of bones from the many naughty brats he has eaten– a gruesome sight of being skinless as if flayed alive. Anyone foolish enough to look through the keyhole risked becoming his next victim! In some folklore, if milk or water was not left out for the fairies they became vampires and drank human blood. In a similar Vein( pun intended), in Russian folklore if vodka was not placed in a drunkard’s grave, the dead drunk (more Pun) would return as a vampire to drink the blood of those individuals to singy with their booze. The old belief that boogey-men could catch someone looking through a keyhole brings to mind the cassic Werewolf of London. Released by Universal in 1935, this little gem features Henry Hull as the werewolf. The story has Hull a botanist searching for a mysterious flower in Tibet, which only blooms during a full moon. While Hull is in the mountains there he is bitten by a werewolf. When he returns to London much mayhem occurs. One of the notable things about this werewolf is the minimal monster make-up. Both make-up and story structure seem to owe as much to Jekyll/Hyde as to the werewolf of folklore. The reason that this film makes me think of the boogey is the scene where two old biddies peep through a keyhole and see Hull looking right at them. A silly scene in which Hull in full werewolf form dressed up in a coat and hat is another salute to Jekyll/Hyde. While this movie is tame enough for older kids on Halloween, it is probably best to stick to Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie for the little ones. Happy Halloween, Earthlings!
