The Boogeyman is an American horror film based on the 1973 short story of the same name by Stephen King. It was released on June 2, 2023.
Synopsis[]
The film follows a 16-year-old and her younger sister, still reeling from the death of their mother, as they're targeted by a supernatural boogeyman, after their psychologist father has an encounter with a desperate patient in their house.
Plot[]
A young girl, Annie Billings, is in her crib when she hears a creature mimicking the voices of her parents. As she cries for her parents to come, the creature kills and presumably devours her.
One month after his wife Cara's tragic death in a car accident, Dr. William Harper struggles to talk to his teenage daughter Sadie and her younger sister Sawyer about processing their collective grief. Sadie remains fascinated with mementos of her mother, including a keepsake dress, but Will still sidesteps Sadie's attempts to have meaningful conversations about Cara.
Grieving father Lester Billings comes to see Will, who works out of his house as a therapist, despite Lester not being one of Will's patients. Lester explains he thought Will could help him because he believes Will is confronting a similar situation. Lester goes on to claim that his children were killed by a supernatural shadow monster his family took to calling "The Boogeyman." Lester adds that the boogeyman comes for children when parents aren't paying attention.
Will excuses himself to quietly call the police due to Lester's presumed mental instability. In the meantime, Sadie returns home from high school. Strange noises draw Sadie to her mother's former painting studio where Sadie finds Lester's dead body hanging in the closet. When her father subsequently speaks to the police, Sadie openly wonders if Lester actually committed suicide because she heard sounds of a struggle before finding him inside the closet.
The Boogeyman attacks Sawyer in her bed. Sadie assumes the blood on her sister is merely due to Sawyer's loose tooth. Sadie then ties a string to the closet doorknob in Sawyer's bedroom to remove the tooth. The door spontaneously slams shut on its own, forcibly removing Sawyer's tooth. The tooth is later pulled inside the closet when neither girl is looking.
Sadie and Sawyer have a joint session with family therapist Dr. Weller. Dr. Weller conducts a test to try getting Sawyer over her fear of the dark, but Sawyer ends up wetting her pants following another frightful encounter with the entity. Afterward, Dr. Weller privately admonishes Will for not speaking responsibly with his daughters about their mother's death. Sadie researches Lester Billings by listening to a recording of his session with her father. Sadie also recreates a sketch one of Lester's daughters drew of the creature. Meanwhile, the monster attacks Sawyer once again.
Sadie asks her distanced best friend Bethany to drive her to the Billings house. There, Sadie meets Lester's distraught wife Rita. Prompted by Sadie saying her sister is supposedly seeing a monster, Rita warns that the boogeyman has now latched on to the Harpers because they are hurt and vulnerable. Sadie flees from the house when Rita fires a shotgun at a shape in the shadows. Back at home, Sadie disappointedly discovers Will moved all of her mother's belongings to the basement.
Anxious to return to a normal life, Sadie agrees to a sleepover for Bethany and three other friends. The five girls briefly smoke a joint left behind by Sadie's mother. Sadie begins coughing uncontrollably before strangely coughing up Sawyer's lost tooth. One of the girls, Natalie, asks to see the closet where Lester Billings died. Sadie has an encounter with the entity when she becomes inexplicably locked inside the closet alone. Upon exiting, Sadie slaps Natalie as she blames them for what happened. Bethany and the other girls storm out. Shortly afterwards, the Boogeyman attacks Sawyer in the living room. At the hospital afterward, Sadie apologizes to Sawyer while affirming that she now fully believes her sister about the Boogeyman.
Rita calls Sadie to her house with a promise that she knows how to get rid of the monster. On her way out of the hospital, Sadie tries telling her father about the creature, but Will dismisses her story because she was high when her closet encounter occurred. Sadie returns to the Billings house to find it wired with booby traps. Rita suddenly subdues Sadie to use her as unwilling bait for the Boogeyman. The monster appears, but it still kills Rita despite her traps. Sadie escapes the Billings home. Over the phone, Sadie warns her father to get out of their house with Sawyer, but the creature attacks them both.
Sadie races home to rescue Will and Sawyer. Together, the three of them battle the Boogeyman in the basement. Based on a previous prompt from Sadie, a lighter flame flickers to the left, indicating the presence of her mother's ghost. Sadie uses the flame to ignite the creature. Cara Harper's belongings also go up in flames as the entire house becomes engulfed in fire.
Sadie, Sawyer, and Will have a joint therapy session with Dr. Weller in the aftermath, with Will admitting that he was scared of parenting alone, but now knows that her girls are there for him. As they are leaving, Sadie hears Dr. Weller calling for her, but when she enters the office, she finds it empty and the closet door slightly ajar. Dr. Weller suddenly appears asking if she needs anything and Sadie simply shuts the closet door.
Cast[]
- Sophie Thatcher as Sadie Harper
- Chris Messina as Will Harper
- Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper
- David Dastmalchian as Lester Billings
- Marin Ireland as Rita Billings
- Madison Hu as Bethany
- Maddie Nichols as Natalie
- Leeann Ross as Cassidy
- Rio Sarah Machado as Anne
- Shauna Rappold as Cara Harper
- LisaGay Hamilton as Dr. Weller
- Cristala Carter as Detective Garland
- Ellie and Maisie Bogert as Annie Billings
- Daniel Hagen as The Creature (uncredited)
Production[]
On February 22, 2022, Deadline reported that an adaptation of the short story by Stephen King titled The Boogeyman, was in development for 20th Century Studios.[1]
On January 20, 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that film would be released theatrically instead of Hulu, due to the positive reception of the film, scheduled to be released on June 2, 2023.[2]
Trivia[]
- This is not the first film to use the name The Boogeyman, nor is it the first film adaptation of the Stephen King story.
- Three films existed prior with the name The Boogeyman, or some variation of it. The Bogeyman, a 1953 West German comedy film, The Boogey Man, a 1980 slasher film (followed by two sequels Boogeyman II and Return of the Boogeyman), and Boogeyman, a 2005 horror film (followed by two sequels Boogeyman 2 and Boogeyman 3).
- An independent short film adaptation of the short story was made in 1982 directed by Jeff C. Schiro. It can be seen here.
- Due to the film being adapted from the short story, many liberties were taken to help expand on the premise.
- Lester and Rita Billings and Dr. Harper are the only characters lifted from the short story.
- The earlier scene of Lester visiting Dr. Harper to tell him about the Boogeyman practically composes the original narrative. Lester getting killed by the Boogeyman is adapted, however in the original story it was Dr. Harper who kills him because he turns out to be the Boogeyman in disguise (complete with a fake mask).
- Rita's fate is never explored and it is simply said that she left to go take care of her mother. The last that is mentioned of her is Lester explaining that "Rita... finally... knew," implying that she too believed that the Boogeyman existed.
- In the original story, the last Billings child that died was a boy named Andy.
- The ending scene with Sadie having an ambiguous encounter at Dr. Weller's office is loosely taken from the short story, though as mentioned, that ended with the implied death of Lester as opposed to Sadie simply shutting the door.
- In the original story, the Boogeyman is given a vague description. It is frequently mentioned as having clawed hands, that it slithers, and that it had "awful slumped shoulders and a scarecrow head". The movie changes it to looking more boney and eldritch-like with a small head, no nose, and a mouth where its "teeth" are fingers that extend to have whole arms and another face behind it.
- Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair both starred in Star Wars related projects before appearing in this film. Thatcher played Drash in The Book of Boba Fett, and Blair played young Leia Organa in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
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