The Boogeyman review – It goes clunk in the dark

Horror movies are hard to classify in terms of what makes them “good”. In recent years, the genre has seen some incredible stand-outs, both in terms of scares, but also writing, directing and acting that defy expectations. As a medium, horror movies are a perfect way to explore dark and complex themes, with supernatural elements and manifestations that amplify and echo the all-too-human tragedies that often kickstart their story.

That being said, I’m sad to report that The Boogeyman is not one of those standouts. Oh, it’s obvious what screenwriting team Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman were aiming for. In their adaptation of the 1973 short story by Stephen King, they expand the narrative significantly, adding a whole new cast of characters as potential monster fodder/allegory stand-ins.

In this version, high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are reeling from the recent death of their mother. Their father, Will (Chris Messina), is a therapist who, ironically, refuses to talk to his daughters about their grief, or his own. When desperate patient Lester (David Dastmalchian) unexpectedly shows up seeking psychiatric help from Will, he opens the door to a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on grieving families and feeds on the suffering of its victims.

With all the pieces in place, it feels like the stage is set for something akin to Hereditary or The Babadook. Instead, the end result is a pedestrian horror film that is cliched at best, and actively stupid at worst. I’ll acknowledge the effort that the cast puts in. Turner pulls off the sullen, grieving, emotional teenager with ease – no doubt drawing from her Yellowjackets experience. Meanwhile, the character of Sadie carries most of the film, with Sawyer adding a lot of wide-eyed terrified stares and whispers, as a child character in a horror film is obligated to do.

Almost every cliché associated with the horror genre is present in The Boogeyman, and none of them play out in a way that could be subversive or clever. Rather, it feels like production kicked off with a guiding list of Key Moments in Horror Films, and director Rob Savage was determined to tick off them all. At almost every turn, characters make ridiculous decisions to set up scary moments, know things they shouldn’t know because it’s convenient, or trust others that are cartoonishly untrustworthy.

When we start to explore the family’s grief, and the literal monster that comes with it, we are painstakingly walked through clunky exposition, where it’s spelled out for Sadie exactly what the monster is, along with all the in-universe rules that accompany its presence. These rules are promptly ignored in favour of continuing to be terrorised, either because of Sadie’s refusal to believe what’s happening, or for Savage to squeeze in more jump scares.

The creature design is one of the positives of The Boogeyman – not only as a set of glowing eyes in the darkness that leave you wondering if it was a trick of the light. When we finally get to see the full monster in the climactic third act battle, it is legitimately nightmare inducing. Or, it would have been, if the road to get there hadn’t been so rocky. By this point I just wanted the cumbersome nightmare to end. 

The Boogeyman was originally planned as a direct-to-streaming release, set to air on Hulu in 2023. After a positive test screening, 20^th Century Studios switched to a theatrical release instead, with Stephen King himself reportedly endorsing the film. As you can tell by this review, I didn’t spot whatever it was that the test audience, or The Boogeyman’s original creator, saw.

The Boogeyman isn’t actually a terrible film; one that should never have seen the light of day. It’s just disappointingly uninspired given the hype that suggested it is something special. It isn’t.

The Boogeyman is in cinemas from 2 June.