Stephen King has written a lot of books and short stories. And a lot of those have been turned into films and television series. One that hasn’t been turned into a film is his short story The Boogeyman, until now that is. Rob Savage (Dashcam) has brought this story to life for the first time but it’s quite a bit like many other horror films. It follows so many tropes in the horror genre but maybe fans of the writer or the genre will like it.

A family has dealt with a personal tragedy when a man, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) comes into their home which is the office of the father Will, who is a therapist, (Chris Messina) He tells the therapist that he has been blamed for killing his family but he also explains that he didn’t do it. An entity that infiltrated his house was the cause of his family dying. Unbeknownst to Will, the therapist, the man brought the entity to his home and it starts to threaten his daughters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher, Yellowjackets) and Sawyer,,(Vivian Lyra Blair, Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Stephen King is known as the master of suspense but even he has some stories that have let audiences down in the past few decades. Some stories are just that, stories. They aren’t meant to be turned into full- length feature films. The trenching of a short story can lead to slow moments or undeveloped plotlines and or characters. Even though this is a relatively short film at ninety eight minutes it does get to the main story rather quickly despite a slow start. Once things get into gear they move briskly. 

We were told stories of the Boogeyman as kids. Don’t do this or that or the Boogeyman will get you. Our parents kept us in check that way. What if this mythological entity was real? What would it look like or would it actually be very scary? The creature that was designed for the film is definitely creepy and very scary. It hides in the shadows and dark places like closets. It would be a good idea to turn on some lights with a creature like this crawling around. The filmmakers created a character that was quite frightful and caused a few jumps during the screening I was in.

Part of the way horror movies get the audience invested in them is their characters. The two daughters in the movie were played very well by these two young actresses. There characters were developed nicely as well. They both had backstories within the context of the film that I felt interested in. Having seen them in other projects made me more interested in them in this movie. I felt tied to the outcome of what happens to them more. Messina was very good in a father role and quite different then his crazy agent role in Air. I believed in him entirely as a concerned father.

The Boogeyman has enough scary moments and a creepy crawly character that even made me, who is not afraid of anything, a little scared. King created a story that is relatable to a lot of families. The idea of the Boogeyman is one we have all heard of as children. So the way Savage developed this story and character into a full-length feature worked. It follows a lot of horror movie tropes but is still engaging and scary at various moments. It starts slow but picks up very quickly. The characters are developed quite well as well. This was an adequate horror film.

3 Stars

Dan Skip Allen