DON'T LOOK UNDER THE BED (TV)

Summary

A television movie about a teenage girl struggling against a mischievous boogeyman with the aid of an imaginary friend.

In the Midwestern town of Middleburg, teenager Frances Bacon McCausland experiences strange dreams which make it difficult for her to sleep. The rest of the McCausland family wakes up; their clocks note that it is 7:00 AM, but it is actually 4:23 AM, leaving them mystified. As the family tries to return to sleep, some kind of creature lurks on the roof of their house, luring their dog towards him with dog biscuits. Later, on the way to school, Frances discovers that the entire neighborhood’s clocks malfunctioned in a similar way to her family’s. On her way to school, Frances and her friend Joanne notice a number of houses with dogs on their roofs. In front of her school she spies another teen staring at her from a distance, but Joanne is unable to see him. Frances attends her biology class taught by Mr. Kepler; outside Mr. Kepler’s car is pelted with dozens of eggs in rapid succession. The teen Frances noticed earlier runs up to investigate the source, finding only a number of empty egg cartons scattered about the roof. Frances discovers that Mr. Kepler’s clock also malfunctioned that morning, and soon thereafter notices the same mysterious teen, still stalking her. Later, Mr. Kepler discovers the egging and becomes suspicious of Frances.

The teen continues to monitor Frances from afar as she returns home from school. Frances discovers that Joanne has a crush on her brother Bert, particularly since he gave her younger brother Darwin a bone marrow transplant, saving his life from leukemia. After Joanne leaves Frances sees the teen again and tries talking to him; he is surprised that she can see him and mysteriously vanishes. Other mysterious events occur throughout the high school: the water in the school swimming pool is somehow replaced with gelatin, bees infest the principal’s office, torrents of water erupt out of school buses, and graffiti depicting the letter “B” appears on buildings, clothing, and objects all over town. That night, inanimate objects such as dolls and busts turn towards Frances when she’s not looking, and the creature from earlier visits the McCausland front yard and plants a series of flowers. Mr. McCausland discovers that all the gelatin in his house is missing, and the family begins to suspect that Frances may be responsible for the various childish pranks around town. Joanne discovers a flower arrangement revealing her crush on Bert and immediately blames Frances. Frances insists she didn’t do it and is at a loss to explain all the recent phenomena.

At school, she notices a number of students seemingly frozen in time until the bell rings, returning them to normal. The other students suspect her involvement with all the pranks, as her locker is the only one not bearing “B-”shaped graffiti. She finds a “B” on the interior of her locker, however. During lunchtime she notices the mysterious teen again and tries to speak with him. He admits that he was frightened that she could see him, and demonstrates that he is invisible and inaudible to everyone else. He introduces himself as “Larry Houdini,” and claims that he is an imaginary friend. Frances decides she wants nothing to do with him, but he believes that he may have been sent there to help her. He claims that the Boogeyman was responsible for all the recent pranks and is framing Frances for them, although Frances doesn’t believe him. Frances gets up in front of all the students in the cafeteria and asks them about Larry, but none of them can see him and are amused by Frances’s seemingly odd behavior. Frances is called in to the principal’s office, and he inquires about the recent events, asking if she knows anything useful. She tells them about Larry’s presence, and sees him appear in the office, although the school staff is unable to see him. Frances chases after Larry through the halls as he leads her into the music room, where he explains that he was sent to watch her by a disembodied voice. The teachers find her in the music room and still cannot see Larry; they assume that this is part of an elaborate prank and call her parents.

Mrs. McCausland has a conference with the principal, where he suggests that Frances’s adjustment to high school after skipping a grade and Darwin’s leukemia is causing subconscious stress, leading her to act out in an unusual manner. Outside, Frances takes a nap and the creature from earlier, the Boogeyman, creeps around her before she wakes up, frightened. Her mother believes the entire thing is a misunderstanding, but is suspicious about the family’s missing gelatin and eggs. She becomes concerned that Frances may not be emotionally mature enough for high school yet and is unhappy with her and her father in some way. They entertain the theory of mass hypnosis, coercing teens all over town to commit these pranks. Frances finds flower petals scattered underneath her bed, making it seem as though she was behind the flower arrangement. Darwin talks to Frances about the Boogeyman, explaining that a boy at the park was told of its existence by Larry, although Darwin says he couldn’t see him.

Frances visits the park and finds Larry there playing basketball by himself. She accuses him of using mass hypnosis to convince others that they could not see him, but he denies this explanation and says that only she and very young children can see him. Larry claims he is receiving instructions from a voice in his head, and seemingly defies the laws of physics by walking on thin air. Larry and Frances head to the local library, where he finds an old dusty tome entitled “Le Livre de Boogey,” or “The Boogey Book,” authored by “Guy N. Head,” as in the “guy in my head” Larry often mentions and seemingly dedicated to Larry. Frances looks on as Larry entertains a group of small children in the library and warns them about the Boogeyman. Frances checks out the book and Larry determines that the Boogeyman lives underneath Frances’s bed. Before she can verify his claim, Larry disappears. Frances finds her parents waiting for her at home, concerned about her recent behavior. They plan to invite her guidance counselor Ms. Readle over for dinner to seek out her advice for dealing with Frances.

Taking Larry’s advice, Frances checks under her bed but finds nothing. Larry appears in her room, telling her that the Boogeyman is not there at the moment. Darwin arrives and Larry attempts to communicate with him, but Darwin cannot see or hear him. Frances realizes that Larry was Darwin’s imaginary friend, and Larry is upset that Darwin no longer believes in him. Frances long ago convinced Darwin that things such as imaginary friends were childish. Suddenly Larry’s eyes take on an unearthly glow and he blames Frances for disrupting his friendship with Darwin. He quickly resumes his usual form, dismissing the incident. Frances claims she helped Darwin to “grow up and face reality,” particularly the reality of his leukemia. Larry argues with Frances, asking why she didn’t donate her bone marrow to Darwin instead of Bert; she tearfully explains that although she wanted to only Bert’s was compatible with Darwin. Larry leaves, still angry at Frances.

That night the Boogeyman emerges from beneath Frances’s bed in the form of a cloud of mist. Larry visits Darwin while he’s asleep and pulls the covers over his head, supposedly a form of protection from the Boogeyman. Frances begins to realize that Larry’s various costumes are derived from Darwin’s action figures. The Boogeyman starts hanging Christmas lights on the McCausland’s house, and Larry brings Frances outside to help him deal with it. Larry heads to the rooftop to confront the Boogeyman, but ends up dangling from the edge of the roof as the Boogeyman taunts him. Frances grabs a ladder to try to help Larry, but he ends up crashing down, causing Frances to accidentally break a window with the ladder. The Boogeyman causes a power outage all over town with the exception of the McCausland home, which is lit up by the Christmas lights. Frances is at a loss to explain the situation to her parents.

The next day, media attention about the various pranks heats up, and reporters gather outside the McCausland home. The McCausland family goes for a drive to get away from the media, leaving Frances home alone. Larry visits her again, and she is surprised to see him unharmed. She inquires about the nature of Larry’s imaginary existence; he explains that he and others like him are periodically “assigned” to various children, and are reassigned when they grow too old to believe in them anymore. He also believes that he wasn’t reassigned this last time because Darwin still had need of him. She finds Larry constructing a “tetrafuge” device in the garage as per the book’s instructions; Larry claims that it will cause the Boogeyman to rapidly age to the point where he will cease to be threatening. He demonstrates on a carton of milk, aging it to the point of being sour in a matter of seconds. Frances suddenly notices that Larry has long clawed fingernails, similar to the Boogeyman’s, but Larry dismisses this as irrelevant.

Larry gets the idea to lure the Boogeyman out of hiding with a substance called “Boogey goo,” and makes a batch using a recipe from the book. Ms. Readle joins the McCausland for dinner, and Frances finds Larry making the Boogey goo in the kitchen, generally making a mess of things. Mrs. McCausland comes into the kitchen, noticing the mess, and Frances tries to make excuses before her mother insists that she be told the truth, trying to understand what has been going on with Frances as of late. She is called away, and Frances finds Larry in the vat of Boogey goo, snacking on it. Frances is suspicious of Larry, pointing out the various physical changes she’s noticed about him recently. She suspects that he is turning into the Boogeyman, but he vehemently denies this. However, she finds a passage in the book explaining that if a child stops believing in their imaginary friend too quickly, that friend may transform into a Boogeyman. Frances offers to get Darwin to believe in him again, but Larry is already partially transformed into a Boogeyman.

Darwin plays in Frances’s room when the Boogeyman emerges, pulling him under the bed. Larry explains that Darwin has been taken to the “Boogey World,” and once he convinces Frances that it exists, she demands that she be allowed to accompany him there to save Darwin despite the possibility that she may be trapped there. She admits that Larry’s accusations about her were correct; she admits to feeling relief when she found out she was ineligible to be Darwin’s bone marrow donor. Frances is about to enter a glowing portal underneath the bed when she is stopped by her father, who demands to know the truth about what has happened. She tells him that it was the Boogeyman’s doing, and he leaves. She makes another attempt to enter the portal and finds herself hanging off the edge of a precarious cliff in a dark landscape peppered with gargantuan versions of Darwin’s toys. Larry helps her up and they look for Darwin; Larry theorizes that the Boogeyman kidnapped Darwin as bait to lure Frances into his clutches. They use a large version of Darwin’s toy car to traverse the terrain, but eventually come to a crashing halt.

Frances finds Darwin and attempts to free him, but the Boogeyman appears and tries to attack Frances. Larry protects her and attempts to activate the tetra-fuge, but the cord leading back to the outlet in Darwin’s room has become unplugged, disabling it. Frances defeats the Boogeyman by toppling a massive version of the book on top of him, but Larry completes his transformation into a Boogeyman and menaces Frances. The other Boogeyman emerges and traps Frances in a net. Frances desperately tries to get Darwin to believe in Larry again as the other Boogeyman drags him to be dropped off a cliff. She is successful and Larry resumes his original form. Larry and the Boogeyman fight as Frances figures out how to reactivate the tetra-fuge. She attaches it to the Boogeyman just before he can impale Larry, causing him to rapidly age into senescence and somehow transforming him into a woman as well. However, the device explodes and the Boogeyman resumes his original state, vowing to kill both Frances and Larry. Frances reveals that this Boogeyman was actually created out of her own childhood imaginary friend, Zoe. Frances takes the Boogeyman in her hand and he changes back into Zoe as the Boogey World dissolves around them, leaving them all back in the real world.

Her parents both talk with her; her father has discovered that similar pranks are occurring in a neighboring town, convincing them that Frances is not responsible. Frances reunites with Zoe and explains that she played with her constantly as a child, but that she stopped believing in her when Darwin got leukemia, feeling as though she needed to “grow up” in order to deal with it. Larry and Zoe decide to visit the neighboring town in order to stop the Boogeyman menacing them. They inform Frances that they will not appear before her again, explaining that she’s become too old to have imaginary friends. Frances doesn’t want them to go, but they note that they’ll remain in spirit if she remembers them. Larry kisses her and lights up her house with Christmas lights again before he and Zoe vanish. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: Disney Channel
• DATE: October 9, 1999 7:30 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:32:46
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: B:84085
• GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SERIES RUN: Disney Channel - TV, 1999
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Jeff Morton … Executive Producer
• David Lancaster … Executive Producer
• Don Schain … Producer
• Kenneth Johnson … Director
• Mark Edward Edens … Writer
• Daniel Licht … Music by
• Erin Chambers … Cast, Frances Bacon McCausland
• Eric "Ty" Hodges II … Cast, Larry Houdini
• Robin Riker … Cast, Karen McCausland
• Steve Valentine … Cast, Boogeyman
• Jake Sakson … Cast, Darwin McCausland
• Mary Parker Williams … Cast, Ms. Readle
• Geoff Hansen … Cast, Mr. Kepler
• Barry Yourgrau … Cast, Principal Gribben
• Stephen Tobolowsky … Cast, Michael McCausland
• Nathan Stevens … Cast, Bert McCausland
• Rudee Lipscomb … Cast, Joanne Smith
• Jessica Giauque … Cast, Brenda
• Dajon Young … Cast, Jason
• Celesta Davis … Cast, Storyteller
• Reb Fleming … Cast, Librarian
• Rachel Kimsey … Cast, Zoe
• Frank Gerrish … Cast, Commercial Spokesman
• Ruth H. Hale … Cast, Old Zoe