Horror movie where a malign entity forces a young woman to cut her own throat. Her prankster brother then has his neck broken by the bathroom window

Question

I know I watched this around 1999-2003 because I remember watching it in my studio apartment in Ohio as a DVD checked out from the library. I think it was an older film, considered a classic (although I remember it seeming somewhat hackneyed at the time). The concept involved a malign entity (a ghost? a demon?) that was killing various characters.

The scene that stuck out in my mind has a young woman, the character likely a late teenager, taking a shower at the family home. I think there was a scene earlier where her younger brother (probably prepubescent) pulled a juvenile "prank" on her, I think just jumping out at her to startle her. I don't think the girl knew that she was a target of the entity. Anyhow, after the shower (I think with only silhouetted nudity behind the shower curtain), she steps out of the shower and to the mirror, at which point the entity takes control, forcing her to unfold a straight razor and cut her own throat, all while her eyes and general face showed her terror as she tried to regain control.

Right afterwards, I think as she was collapsing, her younger brother suddenly stuck his head through the open window and yelled something like "Surprise!" before the window frame suddenly fell and struck him on the neck, seemingly breaking his neck. The suddenness of it has stuck with me over the years. Both victims were Caucasian. I don't think either one was blond-haired. The brother might have had red hair. I'm pretty sure they were at home with their parents, because I have a vague memory of a later scene having the parents find the body, and their grief at what seems like it may have been a tragic accident.

The only other scene I recall with any clarity is one involving two people in a car parked by a body of water (I want to say a lake or a river). These two know that the entity is after them, but think they're safe, only for one to suddenly attack the other as the camera pans back to show that there isn't anyone near enough by to investigate the car as the muffled sounds of the kill happen within.

Answer 1

This is The Boogey Man.

The Boogeyman is a 1980 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Ulli Lommel, and starring Suzanna Love, John Carradine, and Ron James. The film's title refers to the long-held superstition of boogeymen beings, and its plot concerns two siblings who are targeted by the ghost of their mother's deceased boyfriend which has been freed from a mirror.

This is essentially a slasher film with an invisible, intangible ghost as the antagonist. It kills people by using telekinesis to manipulate objects, and its presence is often indicated by POV shots accompanied by heavy breathing and a steady heartbeat.

Regarding the first scene you described, at around 44 minutes into the runtime, a young woman is cutting her hair in front of a bathroom mirror, and we see a POV shot of the ghost watching her from behind the shower curtain. She apparently senses the ghost and thinks it's her younger brother, so she tells it that she knows he's there and that he's not going to scare her. The ghost responds by taking control of the scissors in her hand and forcing her to plunge the blades into her throat, causing her to fall into the bathtub. Her younger brother then climbs up the outside wall of the house and sticks his head in through the bathroom window, yelling "Boogeyman!" in an attempt to scare her. The ghost isn't amused, and kills him by slamming the window down on the back of his neck. A minute or so later, another older sister walks in and finds both of the bodies, before being attacked by the ghost herself.

As for the other scene, at around 55 minutes into the runtime, two young couples are shown having a barbecue on the shore of a river. None of them knows anything about the ghost. As they're packing up to leave, one of the guys gets into his car some distance away from the others, and is killed by the ghost, which pushes a screwdriver through the back of his neck until the tip is protruding about six inches out of his open mouth. A minute or so later, his girlfriend comes over to check on him, and the open door of the car hits her in the backside, knocking her into the car in such a way that her open mouth lands on that of her dead boyfriend, with the tip of the screwdriver stabbing her in the back of her throat cavity. We hear her murmuring in pain, but the other couple think they're just making out, and drive off in their own car.

The whole film is currently up on YouTube.