Written by: Ryan Dailey
There is an old adage, “Less is more.” This saying holds true in many facets of life and it holds the most truth when it comes to adapting the works of Stephen King.King’s literary works have always been hit or miss. His longer novels can be tedious and somehow manages to have too much character and world development, which is a feat. His short stories tend to get more to the point and some go 100 miles an hour, white still giving the reader some back story and an ending that makes sense. The Boogeyman is one such short story. The short story, first published in Night Shift in 1978, does not miss a beat and gets the reader invested in the main character and the story he tells before delivering a twist ending that M. Night Shamalayan could only dream of coming up with. The reader feels as though they are in the psychiatrist’s office listening to the story along with the doctor. The short story delivers in every aspect.
The film adaptation does not.
Rob Savage’s previous films Host and Dashcam showed at least a grain of grittiness and balls. The Boogeyman plays it safe and offers PG-13 “scares” that are predictable and boring. The “horror” in this film is less like Stephen King and more like Goosebumps.
The film has about as much personality as Darkness Falls. In 2023, Savage has delivered the horror nation a brand new movie that looks and feels like it came out twenty-plus years ago. The plot is as thin as what hair Hulk Hogan has left. The matriarch died years ago and now a single father and his two daughters are haunted by supernatural forces. Just like every “horror” film that came out in the early 2000’s. A far cry from the prose version and its creativity. Even the nod to the story is hackneyed and felt shoehorned in.
There are no performances that really save this film and the excellent use of negative space that Savage showed in the afore-mentioned films is all but nonexistent. The horror nation should save their money and read the short story or watch any of the amazing independent horror films that Tubi offers for free.
The Boogeyman is currently playing in theaters.