Film Review: THE BOOGEYMAN (2023): Stephen King’s Short Story Becomes a Routine PG-13 Creature Feature

The Boogeyman Review

The Boogeyman (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Rob Savage, written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman and starring Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair, David Dastmalchian, Marin Ireland, Madison Hu, Maddie Nichols, Leann Ross, Shauna Rappold, LisaGay Hamilton, Cristala Carter, Han Soto, Seylan Baxter, Ellie Bogert and Maisie Bogert.

Stephen King is getting rusty. The latest film adaptation of a short story of King’s, The Boogeyman, is scripted by no less than three credited writers. Perhaps, between the four of them, they could have come up with something a bit more interesting than a run-of-the-mill PG-13 rated creature feature. That being said, director Rob Savage stages some fun jump scares that will appeal to less demanding moviegoers who just want to be kept in suspense whether there’s a genuine plot or not. Unfortunately, the movie’s revelations don’t do much to satisfy those who are waiting for something substantial to happen during the course of the film.

Sophie Thatcher stars in The Boogeyman as Sadie Harper, a high school student being picked on after the traumatic death of her mother. Sadie hangs out with a girl named Bethany (Madison Hu) but gets bullied by a meanie named Natalie (Maddie Nichols). The plot (or what there is of one) kicks into gear as therapist Will Harper (Chris Messina), Sadie’s dad, gets a walk-in patient one day, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), who is rather creepy. Lester claims his youngest child died of Sudden Infant Death syndrome but that he himself is responsible for some other deaths. A freaked out Will goes to make a phone call and Lester flees to go upstairs where Sadie ends up becoming traumatized again when Lester is found hung to death on the back of a door.

Vivien Lyra Blair co-stars as the young sister of Sadie, Sawyer, who is having visions of a boogeyman under her bed; hence the film’s title. Sawyer throws a light under the bed at one point which reveals the creature who is the aforementioned “boogeyman.” Sawyer has a loose tooth and when Sadie tries to pull the tooth out gently with a string, the door attached to the string suddenly closes shut fast and Sawyer’s tooth comes flying out. The house the sisters are living in is haunted. Will will not believe Sadie because she takes drugs at one point which means Sadie is left to fend for herself. She goes to visit the home where Lester’s family members died. There, she meets a gun-toting weirdo named Rita (an effective Marin Ireland) who almost shoots her to death. Rita knows, for certain, there’s a monster lurking about– a boogeyman if you will. Or she could just be crazy. I’ll leave you to find out for yourself.

It was a bit tough to sit through The Boogeyman because it throws in every cliche in the horror movie book and then some. You want a monster whose weakness is bright light. Check. You want a monster who looks like he came out of The Ring? You’ll get that. You want a dream sequence where Sadie starts envisioning horrible things happening. You’ll get it. You want a monster (that you can hardly see clearly) who may or may not be real? That’s here too. You want flat characters who serve the plot no purpose? Probably not, but you’ll get them anyway in this film. And, there’s a scene of Sawyer getting thrown hard against a television set tossed into the movie, just for good measure. That sequence just serves to put Sawyer in the hospital to advance the plot.

To be fair, Sophie Thatcher does extremely well in creating the subtext of her character. Sadie is vulnerable and scared and Thatcher captures the essence of a young woman terrified by the discoveries that she is making. The plot requires that Chris Messina’s character acts like a jerk for quite a while until he finally realizes that Sadie might be on to something in her assertions. When Will tries to throw out his dead wife’s stuff, it takes a fight with Sadie to make him see the error of his ways. Vivien Lyra Blair is a talented young actress but we’ve seen parts like hers in virtually a dozen other horror pictures.

Stephen King penned the short story for which this film is based upon. This movie covers almost no new ground which is unlike most of King’s previous adaptations. King’s work is usually at least moderately intriguing. This time out, though, the film is undermined by how very conventional it all plays. As a result, the audience is forced to wonder what the twist is to this story line, if there even is one to come. Without giving too much away, sometimes a monster is just a monster and a boogeyman is just a boogeyman. If you want to see something that could make you jump out of your seat a few times, this picture could be the right ticket. But, you’ve seen this one before– only done better.

Rating: 6/10

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