[Film Review] The Boogeyman (2023)

Stephen King fans rejoice, an adaptation of one of his spookiest short stories has hit the big screen! Those who have read the original source material (first published in Cavalier in 1973, before featuring in King’s collection of short stories Night Shift in 1978) know that a man, Lester, is haunted by the memory of his children who were murdered by a mysterious creature and is seeking help for his trauma.

But that’s not how the film version is approached, audiences will recognise some names from the story but The Boogeyman (2023) takes the story further, darker and into the depths of fear.

Taking the directorial helm of this spook-fest is rising Horror star Rob Savage, known for his incredibly scary successes Host (2020) and Dashcam (2021), which were both rough and ready indies that took the horror community by storm during a time of critical loneliness, the Covid pandemic. In the case of The Boogeyman, it’s clear that Savage is working with a far bigger budget as this movie steps away from his previous small screen style where the audience was encouraged to watch his films on an intimate screen such as a laptop. Although it’s extremely encouraging to see the director stretching his legs and sprinting through the cinema hellscape to terrify wider audiences, it should be noted that this blockbuster is very different from his previous work and that should be considered when watching this film. It’s also worth raising that this film was originally intended for a streaming audience only, without the cinematic release, something that is a relief in terms of what ended up happening due to the interest of Stephen King himself in the project. 

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The fact that everything is on a larger scale however, does not take away from the tension and terror built into the core plot of this story. Narrative won’t be discussed in this review as it’s wise to go into it as blind as possible but, as mentioned in the introduction, The Boogeyman takes King’s original tale and twists into a new creature that echoes the source but tells it in a fresh new way to give even the biggest King follower a new scare. 

In relation to the scares, the fact that the terror featured in the title remains primarily unseen truly makes this film even more chilling. The hints of body, shadow, the eyes peering across a room, all tap into that primal fear you have as a child. You see something that you can’t identify in the darkness of night and feel your stomach turn to ice as your mind goes into fight or flight mode, assuming a predator is pursuing you. Even in the reveals of the creature, there isn’t too much to be seen, the quick edits and jerking movements combined with the darkness of the shots stop the audience’s eyes from adjusting quick enough to get a good look at the movie’s antagonist. Less seen, more scare is very effective.

Although this review is attempting to avoid spoilers as much as possible, one aspect of the creature needs to be mentioned, so skip past this paragraph if the need to go in completely blind is strong. The use of mimicry by The Boogeyman is ultimately the element that can send shivers down the spine of even the toughest audience member. Taking the voice of another person and copying phrases that they say to lure innocent victims into pitch black doom is as effective as it is disturbing. It brings to mind the bear in Alex Garland’s 2018 Sci-Fi epic Annihilation, whose terrified screams tortured the survivors. The slightly off-kilter sounds interwoven into the monster’s impressions are crackly and inhuman, but overall, it could easily trick a young child who may be half asleep, before they realise too late that their parent or sibling is in fact not calling to them. 

In terms of characters, the younger cast really steal the screen. Young Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) and older sister Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) share an incredibly realistic familial bond that is unshakable through fright and suffering. The use of lighting in the film adds to these performances, with shadows being cast over the faces of the fearsome children as they try to evade the horrors that lurk in the darkest corners. Combined with a nuanced plot that delves into loss and grief in a naturalistic manner, The Boogeyman has all ingredients for a fearsome recipe. 

Overall, The Boogeyman is successfully creepy fun, a very positive step into bigger blockbuster Hollywood horror for Rob Savage that proves that he can take on a project of any size and deliver a film to thrill. Although the ‘mean teen girl’ trope could have been avoided in one of the minor characters, the story itself holds together very nicely for audiences seeking a darker sensibility in their blockbuster terror. 

The Boogeyman is available in cinemas now across the UK and the US.

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