The Boogeyman Review

The Boogeyman is based on a Stephen King short story of the same name. This time childhood fears and grief are explored as a family battle a monster.

The Harpers are suffering from grief after a drunk driver killed the family matriarch. Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) has become overly attached to her mother’s possessions and wears her clothes. Her younger sister, Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) has developed an intense fear of the dark. Their father, Will (Chris Messina), refuses to talk or listen to his girls about their grief despite being a therapist. The Harper family’s personal problems get worst when a mysterious creature starts to stalk and torment the girls.

The Boogeyman was a film that managed to attach a lot of talent behind the camera. Scott Beck and Bryan Woods wrote it, the duo who wrote the first Quiet Place movie, and Mark Heyman, the writer of Black Swan. The director, Rob Savage, has a growing reputation as a horror filmmaker due to his work on the British films Host and Dashcam. There was some good stuff in The Boogeyman.

This team aimed to give The Boogeyman an emotional core. It was about a family suffering from grief who had the added complication of a monster haunting them. They all had something to overcome: Sadie needed to let go and move on, Will needed to accept his grief and not try to bury it, and Sawyer had to conquer her fear of the dark. It was standard screenwriting where characters get an arc, but it was done well enough in The Boogeyman.

The Boogeyman was blessed with two talented young actresses. Thatcher and Blair are rising stars, they have appeared in Yellowjackets and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and their acting talents were on show in The Boogeyman. Their bond as sisters felt genuine as Sadie acted as the caring older sister whilst Sawyer had a sweetness to her. One of the best scenes in the film was when Sawyer was forced to face her fears. Sawyer’s fear and distress were felt and Sadie tried to comfort her. It’s hard not to feel for Sawyer.

David Dastmalchian deserves praise for his performance in a small but pivotal role. He played the father of The Boogeyman’s previous victims. He gave a pained performance as a grieving father who had suffered greatly at the hands of this entity and his pain was palpable.

Savage did attempt to bring some flash to the film. He was making a film about a monster who hid in the dark, so it led to some nice visuals because of the contrast between light and dark. Sawyer walked around with a great round light which she rolled around and at one point Sawyer had to wrap Christmas lights around her so she had a light source. Savage and his cinematographer, Eli Born did like their camera movements, which helped to make The Boogeyman stand out visually.

The Boogeyman was also notable for having a really dark opening, even for a horror film. This was a shocking moment and it was surprisingly refreshing due to how bleak it was.

Whilst The Boogeyman had strong characters and visuals, it was lacking in the story department. Despite it being based on a Stephen King story, it didn’t feel like a King adaptation. Adaptations of Stephen King’s work vary in loyalty to the source material and the quality may differ, but they have a feel to them. The stories can be inventive and unique. The Boogeyman doesn’t stand out from its horror movie contemporaries. The story was similar to It Follows, and Smile since all these films were about people being haunted by a being that was passed on to them. The storyline of a character having a fear of the dark felt similar to the Shudder original The Power.

The similarities with It Follows and Smile were particularly noticeable during The Boogeyman’s second act. All these films focused on the investigation of the origins of the monster so they could stop it. It led to The Boogeyman’s biggest problem by being predictable. It was almost comical at times. During one moment I was thinking ‘Don’t trust the crazy lady with a shotgun.’

The Boogeyman was a perfectly decent if unremarkable horror film. There were flashes of brilliance that were able to shine through the generic darkness.