Screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman
Based on the story by Stephen King
Directed by Rob Savage
Starring Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair and David Dastmalchian
USA, 2023
This is yet another modern horror movie where the trailer made me not want to watch it. Thankfully, I watched it anyway. Turns out I have a terrible track record judging movies by their trailers, especially horror movies from the last couple years. If you recall, the trail to this one says stuff like "from the mind of Stephen King" which, to me, is code for, "Stephen King was barely involved in this at all." Then, most of it centers on a therapy session where a red glowing cube is used to help a kid get used to the dark, and we're all supposed to be scared by this. Needless to say I was rolling my eyes pretty hard in the theater, impatient for whatever Paul Schrader non-Blockbuster I had gone to see.
But, like I said, the joke's on me, because THE BOOGEYMAN is a solid flick -- legitimately freaky while also having a real story and characters you care about. Sophie Thatcher stars as a teen who is still mourning her mother's sudden death. You'd think it'd help that her dad's (Chris Messina) a therapist, and although he tries, not really. Thing is, he's still mourning, too. Then you've got the littlest sister (Vivien Lyra Blair) who spots an evil monster lurking under her bed.
It seems there's an evil entity of some kind that latches onto families, kills their kids, then moves on to the next family. It feeds on fear and is afraid of the light, and its next stop is, you guessed it, the mom-mourning-family's crib. Pretty soon it's up to big sister to figure things out and get rid of the "boogeyman" for good.
As usual, for most scary movies that work, this one takes advantage of stuff that scares pretty much anyone -- things in the closet, things under the bed, things in the dark corners or at the end of dark hallways or in rooms you haven't gone into in a while. The movie also benefits from very believable performances from the lead sisters, who act like real people and not horror movie stars, and a screenplay smart enough to treat the therapist dad as a three dimensional character with strengths and weaknesses, and not some kind of ineffectual loser or outright monster. This way, the family can be empowered but it's not at the expense of any of the characters -- they're all empowered together.
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