Directed by Rob Savage and based on the short story by Stephen King, The Boogeyman follows the story of high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her little sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), who are still reeling from the recent death of their mother. Devastated by his own pain, their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist by profession, gives them neither the support nor the affection they try to claim from him. When a desperate patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on the family and feeds on their greatest suffering.
I have always been a massive fan of Stephen King, and a lot of his work has been adapted either brilliantly or poorly over the years through film and tv. Last year I was met with great disappointment with the attempted remake of Firestarter so I hoped that this year I’d be met with something much better. Thankfully that’s exactly what I was given with this adaptation of one of Stephen King’s creepiest short stories.
Rob Savage delivers an excellent and surprisingly effective take on The Boogeyman story, creating perhaps one of the best supernatural creature features I have seen in years. It doesn’t reinvent the horror genre by any means and it does contain a number of Stephen King tropes we are familiar with, and yet it succeeds in delivering an effective horror flick that has you hooked from start to end with characters you actually feel attached to and utilizing the simplest elements to make for a terrifying experience that really stays with you.
As a horror lover, I found myself so engaged with this film, even with how simple it is in terms of premise and themes, primarily because of the way it is executed. This could have easily been a run-of-the-mill forgettable monster flick but it’s clear that Rob Savage and his crew of incredibly talented individuals put a lot of care into making this adaptation work.
One of the film’s greatest strengths right off the bat is the small grieving family that is the main focus of the story. Each member is given fantastic performances by their respective cast members, making you feel everything that these characters are going through emotionally and making you actually care about what happens to them, which is something every horror should do regardless of what kind it is.
Sophie Thatcher solidly delivers as the grieving Sadie Harper who is struggling to move beyond the death of her mother and tries to find the strength to pull through as she now faces a creature that preys on her family, a monster that uses their sadness and grief to its advantage to haunt and hunt them from the darkness of their own home. Thatcher really sold the character for me almost instantly from the very moment she comes on screen, shining like a star in her role.
Shining along with her is Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper, who many may know as the little surprise superstar who played young Leia Organa in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. She was brilliant in this film, really selling us on the fear her character is feeling as this creature is relentlessly going after her throughout the film. At the same time, she isn’t written as some helpless dumb horror kid that gets into trouble on purpose. After her first few encounters with the creature she actually learns ways to avoid it or not completely fall for the tricks that it uses to lure her to it. She’s terrified out of her mind but she’s also trying her best to be brave and show some resolve, much like her sister is, and I found that to be such a relief from typical horror kid characters that are written and acted as helpless victims.
We also have a brilliant portrayal of a grieving husband/father with Chris Messina as Will Harper. Together this family brings some heart and emotion to the story in their own way and even with the most basic set up we can feel connected to them as characters.
The supporting cast is alright for the roles they play, though some of them play standard Stephen King characters that would make anyone roll their eyes for obvious reasons. The only exception though was David Dastmalchian who delivers a short but strong performance as the haunted Lester Billings. Dastmalchian continues to prove he has some serious range as an actor and yet he always seems to be stuck with a lot of minor roles and not enough major roles like he had in The Suicide Squad. Seriously, he deserves much more than what he’s been getting.
As for the titular creature itself, I am happy to report that it’s a terrifically effective monster both in the way that it is designed, how it acts, and how it is utilized. It’s primarily kept in the dark for a majority of the film before eventually being a bit more revealed as things progress, yet it manages to remain a terrifying presence that will have your skin crawling and scare the fuck out of you when you least expect it. The fact that it is able to mimic people’s voices to lure its victims in adds so much more to the terror and paranoia of the film as a whole. I guarantee people who watch this film are going to be checking their closets, under their beds, and keeping lights on because of this creepy beast. Also those eyes. Those fucking eyes in the pitch-black darkness.
This film’s premise is very simple and the rules are not overly complicated as some of King’s larger stories can be at times, and yet even with simplicity, it can still be scary largely in part because of how the film is handled on a technical level. As someone who used to be deathly afraid of the dark at a younger age, I was at the very edge of my seat with my anxiety through the goddamn roof throughout the film. The way the film utilizes darkness from the simplest shadows to corners of complete blackness is masterful, keeping you entirely on edge when watching and making anyone question where the deadly creature could be lurking as well as where it could pop out.
The cinematography and lighting add to the unnerving atmosphere that has a tight chokehold on you when things ramp up and don’t stop till the end. Even recurring horror tropes that are present in the film somehow managed to be scary and nerve-wracking because of just how well they are done, even in a simplistic fashion. But that is just me personally; I can’t say for certain that it will have the same impact on others. One thing I can say though is that when I went to see this film with my mother she actually screamed out loud in the theater due to one of the big scares in this film. She is 60 years old and that has never happened to her before in her entire life so that definitely says a lot about how this film can impact people in different ways.
I also have to give huge praise to the haunting score by Patrick Jonsson that is used just enough to be effective in the scenes it is placed in and then takes a step back to let the silence creep in and add to the terror.
This film does not bring anything new to the horror genre but it didn’t necessarily have to. All it needed to be was an effective creature horror that was clearly crafted with care and for the most part, I think it succeeded immensely. Are there things in it I felt could have been improved? Absolutely, but it still managed to have way more good going for it than bad, making for a solid adaptation of one of Stephen King’s short stories. If you have the chance to see it in a theater I say go for it. It’s definitely worth giving a go, especially if you are in need of a classic monster tale done right. I’m going to give The Boogeyman an A = 97.
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