Solid scares abound but this one’s for horror junkies only
The Boogeyman (R13, 99 mins) Directed by Rob Savage Reviewed by
Before Monsters, Inc.’s James P Sullivan and Mike Wazowski set me straight, I was greatly enamoured by a trailer for a 1980s low-budget horror called Monster in the Closet.
I loved the simplicity of the premise and the execution looked to have the scrappy trademark of then genre specialists Troma (the creators of such other gems as The Toxic Avengers and Surf Nazis Must Die).
I was reminded of Monster in the Closet while watching this latest Stephen King adaptation to reach our shores. This is essentially Monster if it had been played straight, set its palette to gloom rather than garish and was updated for modern-day sensibilities.
But while director Rob Savage (the British helmer of the viral early lockdown sensation Host) does a lot of things right – there’s some smart, evocative framing, terrific use of sound and point-ofview shots and he keeps his creature under wraps for almost all of the running time – he is let down by a predictable plot that gives the impression of being like a feeling in search of a story.
King’s tales have a somewhat chequered cinematic history. For every Misery there has been a Firestarter, for every Shining, a Dreamcatcher.
And while there’s an argument that short stories like the 1973 effort here have fared better – Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil – those all came from the same 1982 collection Different Seasons. The ‘‘novellas’’ The Boogeyman shares space with in 1978’s Night Moves are a far more infamous bunch: Children of the Corn, Cat’s Eye, Maximum Overdrive, Graveyard Shift and The Mangler all haunt the King cinematic roll call of shame.
Given a spit, polish and spruce up by A Quiet Place duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and Black Swan’s Mark Heyman, this should have been something special, but instead it’s an artfully shot, run-ofthe-mill supernatural stalker movie that’s without the wisecrackery, or a superior version of, Slender Man or The Empty Man.
Our ‘‘victims’’ are the already
traumatised Harper family. Still reeling from the loss of their matriarch, husband Will (Chris Messina) and daughters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are constantly on edge and convinced that something else bad will befall them.
Primary schooler Sawyer needs an elaborate series of night lights to make her feel safe to fall asleep, Sadie struggles to return to class after a month off and therapist Will finds his own demons are outweighing those of his patients.
Things take an unexpected turn when the deeply troubled Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) arrives unannounced, seeking to unburden himself of a dark secret. ‘‘I can’t go to a lawyer because I don’t think I’ve committed a crime, I can’t go to a priest because I’m not Catholic. But I’ve killed my kids one at a time.’’
Questioning by Will reveals that Lester’s actual belief is his three
offspring were all murdered ‘‘by the thing that comes for your children when you’re not paying attention’’ (yes, if you hadn’t guessed it, The Boogeyman is rather heavy-handed when it comes to symbolism). But having shown his hand, Lester promptly does something truly shocking, all while seemingly passing ‘‘the curse’’ to the Harpers.
Cue plenty of thumps in the night, unnerving voices and enough apparent movement to give Sawyer and Sadie conniptions. But the latter will certainly not let whatever this is run roughshod over what remains of her already pretty tattered adolescence.
What follows offers some solid scares, a couple of decent jumps, but nothing particularly new, innovative or inspiring. One for horror junkies only.
The Boogeyman is now screening in cinemas nationwide.