MovieChat Forums > The Boogens (1981) Discussion > How 'The Boogens' got its name

How 'The Boogens' got its name

posted 19 years ago by andybob-3
15 replies | jump to latest

I picked up this little piece of trivia from one of the IMDB reviewers (can't find the name now) and thought I'd add a thread for it, since the movie's title makes a LOT more sense when you know this. "The Boogens" apparently was a real term used by miners to describe the paranoid fear some would feel when they had been working in a mine for too long, this was according to one of the producers during in interview for Fangoria around the time of it's release. Now that I know that I think it's kind of a cool name for the premise, I always thought they just kind of pulled the name out of thin air like a childish take-off of 'boogeyman', unfortunately few people knew where it came from and the name probably did it more harm than good at the box office.
Oh, and let me take the opportunity to say for the 1000's time...SOMEONE RELEASE IT ON DVD DAMN IT!

Heck, I might as well promote my website - http://www.andybob.com

[–] grrrdevin 19 years ago

Now that I know what it means, the title holds a lot more power, and is actually pretty cool if you ask me.

"I've been living off toxic waste for years, and I'm fine! Just ask my other heads!"

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] grrrdevin 19 years ago

Well I guess saying it holds more MEANING is more accurate.

"I've been living off toxic waste for years, and I'm fine! Just ask my other heads!"

[–] bloody-3 9 years ago

Well, I listened to the Olive Films dvd commentary yesterday and the director James L Conway simply invented the name Boogens out of thin air because it sounded good and monster like. According to him it had never been used before.

[–] missnat (1179) 7 years ago

I found title confusing lol

[–] PaladinNJ (21581) 6 years ago

Cool. I always thought it was just a contraction of boogeyman.

[–] Wuchak (8826) 2 years ago

Actually PaladinNJ is correct. "The boogens" is not a term used to describe the fear some miners would experience after spending too much time deep in the earth. It was just a silly word screenwriter David O'Malley made up based on "boogeyman." To explain, he originally intended to call it "The Boogeyman," but another film by that name debuted in 1980 while he was still working on the script; hence, the dubious contraction.

[–] MoviesSuck (964) 2 years ago

This was posted 17 years ago. That’s unbelievable.

[–] Wuchak (8826) 2 years ago

Yeah, that's a long time ago. Nevertheless, old questions are still relevant to those who are seeing the flick for the first time, like me.

[–] MoviesSuck (964) 2 years ago

Oh, definitely. I’m just shocked that these forums have been around for almost two decades.

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 2 years ago

IMDb message boards started in 2003. So as of now the oldest posts on here are 19 going on 20 years old.

[–] Wuchak (8826) 2 years ago

Wouldn't that be 29 going on 30?

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 2 years ago

Oops, sorry, typo. Fixed it.

[–] MoviesSuck (964) 2 years ago

Someday it’ll be 10,020.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Peculiar title.