&He&s here. He came out of the closet.&

What lurks behind the closet doors and underneath beds at night revealed itself on the big screen with the release of &Boogeyman& on Thursday.

The film, starring Barry Watson, otherwise known as &7th Heaven&s& Matt Camden, depicts a man named Tim who sets out to face his childhood fear that became reality 15 years ago.

A shivering 8-year-old Tim, played by Caden St. Claire, appears in the opening scene huddled underneath his covers, nervously watching a shirt turn into the Boogeyman in the dark.

His dad, played by Michael Saccente, tries to calm his child by walking into the closet.

Just as everything seems to be in its place and the audience can take a breath of fresh air, an unseen force grabs the dad by his ankles and yanks him inside the closet, slamming the door.

Now, it seems, the childhood story has come true.

The closet door reopens and the dad appears, but this time the Boogeyman violently throws him around to the horror of the man&s son who sits watching with unbelieving eyes only feet away.

The scene abruptly ends when the childhood monster snatches him back inside, leaving young Tim frozen in shock and the audience fastened to their seats with their popcorn partially chewed.

&Boogeyman& gets off to a great start, but has trouble holding its impact on the audience.

Suspense and gut-wrenching horror scenes like the first one fill the big screen during the full 86 minutes, but becomes increasingly difficult to follow and entirely too predictable.

With every scene involving scary music, tense moments and the infamous unopened closet door, it&s easy for the audience to grow accustomed and almost bored with feeling frightened.

It must be mentioned, however, that the producers do a good job keeping the Boogeyman hidden from the audience, playing off of the greatest fear of them all 8211; fear of the unknown.

That fear, although immensely overused, intensifies as the minutes tick by.

Gapping black holes lay menacingly at the end of even blacker corridors.

An abandoned old Victorian house uninvitingly draws the viewers into its haunted lair, with its drippy faucet and plastic-wrapped furniture.

A black crow comes out of nowhere and slams into a windshield as a reminder that something evil exists.

Everything happens quickly and suddenly, forcing many people out of their seats with their hands cupped over their mouths, in an attempt to stifle the unavoidable scream.

Keeping the monster hidden, along with all of the movie&s special effects and frightening moments, certainly helps impact the audience, but cannot redeem some of the film&s additional shortfalls.

Ghost House Pictures, the film&s production company, mimics the low-budget documentary, &The Blaire Witch Project,& with the camera constantly jerking around from one scene to the next in no smooth easy-to-follow fashion.

Many times it&s hard to see what&s happening since the characters get mixed in with the floor and sky while the camera tries to produce a hectic and chaotic effect to tense up the viewers.

Unfortunately, it&s motion sickness they&re producing.

The familiar story of a Boogeyman hiding underneath a child&s bed at night also becomes distorted and a little far-fetched.

Tim&s fear of the Boogeyman turns into an &Odysseus-like& and science-fictional quest as he hustles to save more people from being taken by the closet freak.

&You have to face him.&

Sky McCole Bartusiak, who played Jessie in &Don&t say a Word,& helps Tim in his &quest& and adds an unexpected element to the story line.

Without giving the movie away, the ending is a major disappointment, lacking the fear that prevailed through every other scene.

The last unanticipated jump never comes and everything wraps up all too quick.

&Boogeyman& is rated PG-13 for intense horror scenes and partial nudity.