‘The Boogeyman’ turns deep-seated fears into a small-scale Stephen King movie
Review by Brian Lowry, CNN
(CNN) — Nothing could be more visceral than the fear monsters that kids imagine under the bed or in the closet are actually real, which provides the backbone of “The Boogeyman,” a movie (very) loosely based on Stephen King’s early short story. Originally earmarked for Hulu, the film is now receiving a theatrical release, where its modestly scaled chills should scare up some business.
King has always been fairly philosophical about taking Hollywood’s money and not fretting about how they handle his work, a mentality that should suit him well given the creative contortions and liberties undertaken to flesh out his story.
As constructed by director Rob Savage (“Host”) and a team of writers (working with producer Shaun Levy), the emphasis shifts to therapist Will Harper (Chris Messina) and his two daughters, who are mourning the death of his wife/their mother when a mysterious patient arrives, bringing a strange tale and dark presence with him.
That patient, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), explains how his three children died, and speaks vaguely of the shadowy monster that he believes took them. The threat soon passes to Will’s teenager, Sadie (“Yellowjackets’” Sophie Thatcher), and little sister Sawyer (“Obi-Wan Kenobi’s” Vivien Lyra Blair), who already sleeps with a nightlight because of her fear of the dark.
As is so often the case with these movies, the buildup is generally more terrifying than the payoff, and Savage doesn’t scrimp when it comes to jump-at-you scares. Those moments become particularly unnerving when involving the younger child, which is why even though there’s not an abundance of gore, thematically speaking, the PG-13 rating here feels a trifle generous at best (“Monsters, Inc.,” this isn’t).
As with “It,” one of the adaptations whose success fueled the latest rush to put everything King has ever written except shopping lists on screen, “The Boogeyman” traffics in the unsettling proposition that irrational childhood anxieties have an underlying foundation. Like another recent adaptation (and indeed, many King movies and TV shows), “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” it finds horror in the utterly mundane, with the inherent spookiness of that theme helping to carry it through shortcomings in the actual resolution.
By then, “The Boogeyman” has mostly accomplished its mission, which is to say put audiences on the edge of their seats, wondering what horror will emerge from the darkness next. Practically speaking, those relatively inexpensive thrills provide shrewd counter-programming, with its small-boned framework, to a wave of lavish summer blockbusters.
The fact that those seats will initially be situated in a movie theater, surrounded by strangers instead of on a couch at home, reflects a simple formula that King’s work has long demonstrated – namely, that reaching into the deepest recesses of our psyche remains a pretty good way of tapping into our wallets, too.
“The Boogeyman” premieres June 2 in US theaters. It’s rated PG-13.
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