Film Review - The Boogeyman
Images courtesy of 20th Century Studios.
Following in the footsteps of The Lawnmower Man, 1408 and Maximum Overdrive, The Boogeyman is the latest Stephen King adaptation to tackle the job of elongating one of King's short stories to feature length. Directed by Rob Savage (whom most will know from his breakout Zoom-set horror flick Host, and hopefully not so much from the infuriating Dashcam), the film follows a family that is haunted by a sinister entity after a stranger kills himself in their home.
Like its director's previous efforts, The Boogeyman has a strong sense of how to unnerve audiences. Savage creates a tense and creepy, yet also sometimes beautiful atmosphere through oppressive, ethereal sound design and brooding lighting, making us feel the presence of the mostly unseen threat. He also continues to get great performances from his cast, especially Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair, who play the sisters targeted by the boogeyman (don't worry, the film has the restraint to only refer to the entity by that name once - this is no Bye Bye Man). However, the film also explores themes of trauma and the inherent nature of evil, themes that have become extremely commonplace in horror films.
The script, written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman, isn't exactly reinventing the wheel. While at first I appreciated the relentless energy of the supernatural antagonist, after a bit, it began to feel repetitive. At its core, it's an extremely familiar "curse of the ghoul" type narrative: there's even a dilapidated house inhabited by a prepper-type survivor driven to the brink of madness. It actually reminded me of last year's Smile, though less mean-spirited and a bit more gentle in its handling of themes. Thankfully though, this approach to the formula winds up nevertheless effective, and the climax of the film features some excellent visuals and a genuinely stirring payoff to the otherwise played-out trope of grief.
The Boogeyman is a decent horror film that delivers on the prerequisite jumps and jolts, despite sometimes falling into the trappings that come with elaborating on succinct source material. Despite my initial doubts about Savage's capabilities on a larger budget and in a more traditional, non-found-footage framing, it winds up being my favourite of his work. In a world where arthouse and indie horror reign supreme, we're still going to get studio horror films about spooky specters and ancient curses, and honestly, if half of them were as well-directed as this, I wouldn't mind that at all.
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The Boogeyman is screening in cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.