The Boogeyman: Film Review
After making a name for himself with independent horrors Host and Dashcam, Rob Savage brings us his first major studio effort with The Boogeyman.
Inspired by the short story by Stephen King, The Boogeyman follows Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer Harper (Vivien Lyra Blair), sisters mourning the recent death of their mother. One day, their therapist father (Chris Messina) welcomes an uninvited visitor into his home office – a troubled man (David Dastmalchian) whose children were terrorised and killed by a supernatural being who likes to hide out in dark spaces. After his visit, the entity latches onto them and stalks the home.
Savage cleverly subverts the “ghoul in the closet” trope so its appearances often don’t play out like you’d expect. After years of watching horror, you can visualise the door clicking undone and slowly creeping open, filling us with tension and dread for what’s to come. The monster does the slow tease sometimes – but I was surprised and unnerved by how quickly it moved at other points. It doesn’t hang around; it gets straight down to business!
The creature is horrifying and icky but his eyes were the most effectively creepy element. Seeing those shining in the dark are enough to make you tense. As is often the case, it becomes less scary once you see it in its entirety because your imagination is no longer filling in the blanks. Thankfully, it likes to stay hidden and hates the light so we don’t get a good look at him for a long time.
The star of the show was Blair as Sawyer, who often goes towards the thing when most of us would run away. She gets put through the wringer but she is no wimp! She made me laugh a few times with her excellent line delivery. Thatcher, who I only know from Yellowjackets, is excellent as the grieving daughter desperate to connect with her father over their shared loss, but he would rather pull away and pretend everything is fine.
The film isn’t gory or violent but it’s an effective suspenseful horror. I hid behind my scarf at several points, jumped and audibly gasped at one unexpected moment, and I immediately turned all the lights on when I got home. It preys on the childhood fear of the monster in the bedroom and the sound design is very creepy.
It’s not the scariest film this year or even the best King adaptation but it’s a solid horror feature that I had a good time with.
In cinemas from Friday 2nd June