The Boogeyman Is a Satisfyingly Spooky Exploration of Fear

Even in its original short story form, appearing in his first collection Night Shift in 1978, Stephen King‘s “The Boogeyman” retains a remarkably clever narrative scaffolding. In that version, the tale simply follows a disturbed man telling a therapist about the monster that killed all three of his children, then caps things off with a twist ending which cements our understanding that the monster is not just real, but still quite present. It sends a chill down your spine when you read the last line, but the real magic lies in the larger point of the story that lives in your brain long after you’ve closed the book: Fear never leaves. It just changes.
The challenge of bringing this story to the big screen, therefore, was not to faithfully execute every beat of the original story’s plot, but to preserve that core idea—to keep intact the feeling that something was scuttling in the darkness of our world even after the credits rolled. It’s a challenge that’s more about tone than jump scares or monster designs, and while those elements are also present, the most impressive thing about The Boogeyman is how well that tone shines through. Even when you might want more from its plot, and even when it’s sticking to quiet character drama over all-out monster assaults, The Boogeyman thrives on the implied thing that’s lurking in every corner, which makes it a very effective, intimate creepshow.
The film’s script, by Mark Heyman and A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, uses the original King tale as a catalyst for the larger story of the title creature, and the family it’s haunting. In this case, that family is the Harpers, led by therapist and recent widower Will (Chris Messina), who meets the disturbed patient from the original story (David Dastmalchian giving his scene-stealing best) early in the film and sets off on a darker, larger journey. Since losing his wife to a car accident, Will has been struggling to be a present father to his two daughters, teenage Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and the much younger Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), who’s troubled by visions of monsters in her closet and under her bed.
Of course, the central hook of The Boogeyman is that the creature Sawyer sees lurking in her room is not only real but very dangerous, having already destroyed one family and, through Will’s new patient, transferred to the Harper home. What follows is a battle for the lives and souls of a broken family, as the Harpers must fight their own inner darkness, all while grappling with the idea that something inhuman, ancient and relentless is ready to eat them alive.