by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
Since 2001 when I saw my first horror movie, I have been in love with the genre; in that time, I have seen a lot of horror movies — some scary, and a lot not so much. Over the years, horror has relied too heavily on jump scares rather than legitimate scary things. In 2022, horror fans got their year, with strong, scary hit after strong, scary hit, leaving them wondering if we would continue this trend into 2023. 20th Century Studios’ newest movie, The Boogeyman, is a step in a good direction. It is truly terrifying, and can very well induce nightmares. Of course, the main reason for this being truly terrifying is that it is based on a Stephen King short story of the same name.
The Boogeyman tells the story of Dr. Will Harper (Chris Messina) and his daughters, Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), who are still in the throes of grief a month after the passing of their mother. Sawyer is afraid of the dark and sees monsters, but it’s not until Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) visits Dr. Harper that those monsters become the Boogeyman. Billings says this monster killed his kids, not him, and that he comes for kids of neglectful parents. At first, no one believes Sawyer is really seeing a monster, but eventually, through investigating the case, Sadie comes to believe her sister, and they must fight to survive.
Darkness is the ally in this movie, because it enhances the scares to the point that your own mind might be playing tricks on you. The writers — Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and Mark Heyman — do a fantastic job of expanding this short story into something terrifying, even though after I read a synopsis of the original short story, I realized they could have adapted that story into a 90-minute movie that would have been just as good. Bringing in the new characters like Sadie and Sawyer, and focusing on the Harper family, works, but this could have worked for a sequel, after focusing the first movie on the Billings family. But don’t let that deter you from the movie. The story is good, and the children’s mental health is handled well. Despite Dr. Harper being a therapist, they still are taken to someone else, which is not often the case.
Chemistry works great in a movie like this, where the main protagonists work together and seem like a real family, which makes you feel for them in the end. Blair and Messina in particular have good chemistry, and they have many great father-daughter scenes. One in particular was impactful to me because it made me think of my own nieces. Blair and Thatcher work great as siblings, too: One minute they are protecting each other, and the next, they are arguing and fighting like siblings. That’s the main reason this film works and is so terrifying: You begin to feel for this family and start rooting for them to survive. This family is your key; if they didn’t work, then the movie wouldn’t work.
A monster movie is only as good as your monster, and The Boogeyman hits a home run. While the monster lives in the darkness, it is a real creature, and not just your mind playing tricks. The CGI is good enough to make you believe it is a real creature, and the few times you see it, you are more terrified. A lot of monster reveals are laughable, but this effects team does a good job. The backstory reminded me of the Wendigo myth, but there’s also enough new ground for it to be something more.
You can sense King’s influence here, and while it is enough to make it that much better, it’s not quite enough for it to feel like another King movie. But overall, The Boogeyman is terrifying and will have you sleeping with all your lights on.
Score: 8/10
The Boogeyman is currently playing in theaters
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