At the end of last week, I went to see The Boogeyman on opening night, a movie that is based on the short by best-selling author Stephen King. I was really looking forward to seeing the movie after the teaser trailer of the little girl in the bed and the monster underneath, the trailer certainly gave me chills and had me intrigued about the new horror.
After the recent death of their mother Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) aren’t getting much support from their father, Will (Chris Messina). Will is a trained therapist who is dealing with his own pain of losing his wife, but when a desperate patient played by David Dastmalchian arrives at their home seeking help from something that sounds so unbelievable, Will tries to help him, a supernatural entity is left behind at the Harper’s house.
The creature preys on families and feeds on the suffering that it inflicts on its victims, The Boogeyman now wants the Harpers and it’s up to the family to fight the evil and try to defeat something that many only thought was something made up to scare the young.
As I mentioned earlier, my initial thoughts for this movie based on a short story by Stephen King had me hoping for something that would send chills down my spine and give me some good jump scares especially with the movie being directed by Rob Savage who brought us HOST, much like the first viewing of the teaser trailer. But sadly the film really falls short on all the aspects of anything that could make me jump.
Plenty of people jumped during the trailer, but when it came to the movie itself no one at my screening jumped or screamed, not a flinch to be seen which is a real shame. I’m not sure if it’s that we’ve all got used to the format of most horrors these days with the attempt to have a loud noise to make you jump or the moment of thinking something will happen but then it happens after the moment.
It might also be that The BoogeyMan seemed so dark and I don’t mean as in the tone of the film, I mean with the lighting! There were several scenes where I couldn’t really make out what was going on, such as a couple of scenes in a basement, the clarity of the lighting just seemed awful.
When it came to the cast they lifted the movie from its slight boredom, Vivien Lyra Blair, who many of you will recognise as the young Leia Organa in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi was great as Sawyer and she certainly plays the part well of a terrified little girl who can’t sleep in the dark.
Sophie Thatcher plays the big sister role well, you can feel the on-screen connection between her and Blair, which works very well for the characters.
Chris Messina plays the father role well as well, you feel for him and the loss that the character is going through with the death of his wife and how he has to cope with his loss and those of his daughters for their mother.
I would have liked to have seen a lot more of David Dastmalchian’s character, Lester Billings, as the role just seemed to be more of a quick in-and-out moment of the story, but he does bring the story forward with his introduction of The Boogeyman.
If you are looking for a horror movie that is going to make you leap out of your seat or peep through your fingers then sadly this really isn’t the movie that is going to do that for you, you really don’t get to see much of The Boogeyman itself and when you do the screen is so dark you can’t see much, which is very disappointing, there isn’t one of those big reveals in glorious horror that we get with it.
If you are a fan of Stephen King and have read the short story then this movie may interest you to see the comparison of the written word to the movie adaptation, but if you want a real horror then sadly you may be disappointed.
It seems that horrors are back, but many of them lack those moments of making your skin crawl, making the hair stand up on the back of your neck or even making you jump and scream, those types of horrors are few and far between but when they do come along they certainly become something special.
Sadly The Boogeyman isn't Scary!
Movie title: The Boogeyman (2023)
Movie description: Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, a teenage girl and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it's too late.
Date published: June 3, 2023
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 38m
Director(s): Rob Savage
Actor(s): Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Summary
The teaser trailer for The Boogeyman certainly gave us the chills of a scary horror movie, but sadly the movie falls flat on the jump scares or any scares for that matter.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
