Four college kids decide to break into a haunted hospital on Halloween and get stuck there. Meanwhile, the son of a cop (Michael Samluk's Allan) enlists his father's partner and washed-up actor, Dynamite Jones (Dig Wayne), to look for his sister who went missing after she and her friends also broke into the hospital.
Honestly, the whole "college kids" thing is a joke because the actors are clearly much older than they're supposed to be. It's actually pretty cringe-worthy.
Boo doesn't have much to recommend it in the way of acting (seriously, it's not good) but the sets are effective. The abandoned mental hospital is creepy, which is helped by things like falling dust and long shadows. Light and shadow is a win. Casting... not so much.
Supposedly, the ghost who possesses each of the "kids" in turn makes them mistrust each other until they crack and start killing their friends. Why, I don't know, since that has nothing to do with who the ghost was as a (despicable) person.
They try to set up the mistrust quite early when Kevin (Jilan VanOver) pretends to attack his girlfriend and psychic, Jessie (Trish Coren), then bullies her into going to the haunted hospital which she says over and over she doesn't want to do. His douchebaggery is just too over the top. By the time he shoots Trish's so-called best friend and person he's been having an affair with, Marie (Nicole Rayburn), in the head, you're just like, meh. Saw that coming.
The fourth friend, Freddy (Josh Holt), is just whiny and lovesick. Poor little white boy stuck in The Dreaded Friend Zone. I hate that shit and I hate movies that perpetuate the myth of the friend zone. Not real, fuckers. Freddy knows he's being used but puts up with it because Marie will eventually fall for his lapdog devotion. Right? RIGHT?
*gag*
Speaking of dogs... I take away points from any movie that has a dog in it for no reason other than to do die--and Boo really didn't have enough points to lose.
Boo has no focus. There's too much going on. I think I counted four subplots. Pick one, dammit, and do it well rather than trying to do a million things and getting them all wrong.
You've got the mental hospital that's haunted because a lunatic managed to light the whole place on fire with just a match and a newspaper. (Bull.) You've got Jessie's mother who went nuts then died--but not before passing on her psychic ability that none of Jessie's friends respect. (Her friends treat her like shit, by the way. The whole time.) You've got the other group of dumb ass kids that went into the hospital and never came out. You've got Allan trying to find his sister. You've got Dynamite Jones trying to prove he really is a hero. You've got psycho ghost trying to escape in the body of one of the teens. You've got nurse ghost trying to keep him there. And, oh yeah, you've got the ghost of a little girl who was in a mental hospital for no apparent reason except to get killed by the lunatic on the same day he burned it down.
Damn. Focus!
Here's the worst part for me: Boo touts horror legend Dee Wallace as its main star, which isn't even close to the truth. Sure, she's in a few flashbacks but even her presence isn't enough to save this one.
I honestly thought Boo was about three hours long when I was watching it but, no, that's just how long it felt. (It's actually short, at just an hour and thirty-three minutes. Still too long.)
The CGI isn't as bad as some of its peers, I guess, but its used so ineffectively that doesn't matter. They make a big deal out of making sure each other bleed to prove they're not ghosts/possessed/whatever--but the ghosts bleed too. And not just bleed. Bleed, melt, and explode. The viscera is over-the-top and feels like the main focus of the movie at times. Totally unnecessary, especially for a haunting, which should be mostly psychological.
Boo doesn't know what it wants to be and just ends up being a mess. Don't waste your time.
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