Director
Rob Savage
Cast
Chris Messina - Dr. Will Harper
David Dastmalchian - Lester Billings
Sophie Thatcher - Sadie Harper
Vivien Lyra Blair - Sawyer Harper
Marin Ireland - Rita Billings
Madison Hu - Bethany
🕱 Possible spoilers ahead... 🕱
Horror writer Stephen King's name is back on the big screen. Unexpectedly, too. At least, for me. I didn't hear about this movie until a month or two ago. Director Rob Savage brings a loose adaptation of King's short story "The Boogeyman" to the screen just in time for summer.
Chris Messina - Dr. Will Harper
David Dastmalchian - Lester Billings
Sophie Thatcher - Sadie Harper
Vivien Lyra Blair - Sawyer Harper
Marin Ireland - Rita Billings
Madison Hu - Bethany
🕱 Possible spoilers ahead... 🕱
Horror writer Stephen King's name is back on the big screen. Unexpectedly, too. At least, for me. I didn't hear about this movie until a month or two ago. Director Rob Savage brings a loose adaptation of King's short story "The Boogeyman" to the screen just in time for summer.
King's short story was originally published in the March 1973 issue of "Cavalier Magazine." It was later published in his first collection of short stories titled "Night Shift" (1978).
His story focuses on Lester Billings as he visits Dr. Harper's psychiatry office. Billings opens about the deaths of his children who shouted "boogeyman" before they died under strange circumstances. It's a creepy story as it centers on a father's horrific situation that's beyond his control and worse, beyond belief. But, it's true. A monster emerges from the shadows of the closet and claims innocent children as its victims. It's like a retelling of a classic story.
The movie, however, has the monster terrorize Dr. Will Harper (Chris Messina) and his oldest daughter Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and younger daughter Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) whom the monster narrows in on.
As the movie begins, the family is grieving and trying to carry on after the death of their mother. Dr. Harper is struggling to cope with the loss of his wife while trying to care for his daughters.
Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) visits Dr. Harper without an appointment to seek help regarding the death of his child and this monster that attached itself to his family. Harper has his clinic in his house. While talking to Billings, he excuses himself in order to contact other medical professionals as he thinks this stranger is truly delusional and in need to further help.
While Harper is on the phone, Billings starts wandering around the house. Finally, Sadie finds Billings dead in her mother's art room closet. Before finding him in there, she heard what sounded like two people fighting.
Soon, the monster starts making itself known to Sawyer in her bedroom at night. Sadie doesn't believe Sawyer's claims of a monster coming into her room, but after a few strange experiences she grows curious.
She even pays a visit to Billings house where his widow, Rita (Marin Ireland) still lives. She seems to know a lot about this thing, and even creates a plan to draw it out and kill it.
Sadie witnesses Rita injure the creature in a trap. So, she attempts to take it down herself.
The actual monster looks more like an alien when the audience is able to get a good look at it. For most of the movie, all we're treated to is beady glowing eyes and silhouettes, with quick glimpses in between. It's also able to mimic voices to fool its child victims.
Savage manages to take King's retelling of a classic story and turn "The Boogeyman" into a horror movie that I refer to as "daisy chain horror." I talked about daisy chain horror stories in my review of the 2022 movie "Smile."
In that post I said, "In these sorts of movies, the only way for the main character to dispel or overcome the evil or curse haunting them is to pass it on to someone else. To be rid of evil, they have to commit evil. It's a terrible premise. No one comes out any better. Events go from bad to worse, and then the story is over. It's not really a resolution. It's just an ending." The 2002 movie "The Ring" is a great example of such a horror movie.
To its credit, "The Boogeyman" does leave the audience with some satisfaction. Still, in true King fashion, that satisfaction is tarnished with subtle uncertainty.
With "The Boogeyman," the evil seems to infect victims through its own choice, although the scene in which Lester Billings visits Dr. Harper and then dies in his home implies Billings may have intentionally brought the creature to the doctor's family. Or, perhaps, he somehow knew the monster would be victimizing the grieving family, so he tried to somehow stop it. Honestly, I don't know. It's vague.
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| Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, and Vivien Lyra Blair in "The Boogeyman." |
With so many King stories adapted into film, Savage has a lot of competition when it comes to making a memorable King movie. Maybe if the movie stuck to King's original story frame, it may have been more unsettling and scarier than what we got. The premise of a helpless father facing an unimaginable yet real unearthly evil that took his children, and watching how he deals with such a thing, is much more chilling than what Savage came up with. Having an audience put themselves in Billings' shoes would be more memorable a movie experience. Otherwise, this movie feels like the producers were trying to make something different, veering off from King's storyline, only to come up with a horror movie that closely resembles stuff seen over and over again.
As the monster lives in shadow and flees from light, I got the sense that it uses shadows like a highway, travelling from one dark place to another at quick speed even in the middle of the day.
Savage's isn't the first movie adaptation of "The Boogeyman." There's a short film also called "The Boogeyman" from 1982, directed by Jeff C. Shiro. It's more of a faithful adaptation to the original short story. I found a copy of it on VHS, which was one hell of a challenge.
Savage's film is heavy with thrilling suspense as it keeps all things in the dark (literally and figuratively) until the end. And by then, there's still some elements that either need explaining, interpretation, or are just left to stay in the dark. The ending does give a nod to King's ending.
As the monster lives in shadow and flees from light, I got the sense that it uses shadows like a highway, travelling from one dark place to another at quick speed even in the middle of the day.
Savage's isn't the first movie adaptation of "The Boogeyman." There's a short film also called "The Boogeyman" from 1982, directed by Jeff C. Shiro. It's more of a faithful adaptation to the original short story. I found a copy of it on VHS, which was one hell of a challenge.
Savage's film is heavy with thrilling suspense as it keeps all things in the dark (literally and figuratively) until the end. And by then, there's still some elements that either need explaining, interpretation, or are just left to stay in the dark. The ending does give a nod to King's ending.
It's not the worst adaptation of a Stephen King story. That "honor" goes to the 1992 flick "The Lawnmower Man." Still, it's far from the best. There's nothing about it that makes it stand out other than King's name attached to it. Otherwise, I've seen this kind of horror movie several times before.
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I'm including horror movie trivia into my posts now! That's fun, right? Either way, there it is. The answer will be in my next post...
Silent film comedian Buster Keaton's granddaughter, Camille Keaton, stars in what controversial 1978 revenge horror flick which was remade in 2010?
*Answer to the question from my last post, "Critters" = Puppet Master.
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