Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
Plot: When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their house seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims.
Review: Grief can be a monstrous thing. No, that’s not the tagline for this movie (or at least I don’t think it is) but it is the main theme being explored in this latest Stephen King adaptation, The Boogeyman.
The story centres on a family of four, turned three by the accidental death of their mother. The Boogeyman (not to be confused with 2006’s Boogeyman or the countless other films with the same title) follows Sadie (Sophie Thatcher of Yellowjackets, The Book of Boba Fett), her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair of Bird Box, Obi-Wan Kenobi) and their father Will (Chris Messina of Devil, The Mindy Project) as they struggle to put their lives back together in the aftermath of losing a loved one. Their father is a therapist and finds it easier to help strangers with their own issues rather than face the pain he and his daughters are in, making the family dynamic ripe as targets for a malevolent entity that hides in the shadows of their home.
Now I’m not saying that we’ve seen this all before…who am I kidding? We’ve seen this all before. If anyone had told me Rob Savage, the same director who brought audiences innovative genre flicks like Host and Dashcam (the latter had its flaws, but I give it points for not holding back) I would’ve said no way, as this movie plays like every other horror movie that’s been kneecapped by its PG-13 rating. It’s never an easy feat adapting a short story into a feature length film, but it’s not impossible as last year’s crowd pleaser The Black Phone proved.
So, what went wrong here? Well, if you ask this horror fan, I will say it was a case of the movie trying to do much more than it needed to. Not every horror story has to be super serious or, forgive me for saying this, “elevated horror” (I’m not a fan of the term either) and The Boogeyman tries so hard to be The Babadook. It failed to make the simple concept of the monster under a child’s bed as engaging as it could’ve been. Dimly lit scenes and washed-out colour palettes do not a horror movie make. Neither are long moments of characters being sad just to have something jump out at them in the hopes of garnering cheap scares from viewers. I would even argue the 2006 Boogeyman is a better movie, and that’s one of those movies you’ll probably forget as soon as you’ve finished viewing it.
It’s a shame really because you could tell the three main leads were trying to give us something akin to likeable characters with their performances. Sadly, they don’t get much to work with as the movie speeds to its very predictable conclusion against its very generic looking foe. That’s not to say it’s a terrible film or anything, but it is the type of movie that would make a horror fan like me recommend other movies you could watch instead that took on themes such as this and did it better.
So, if you’re in the mood for a “boogeyman” experience that won’t leave you as disappointed as this one left me, I suggest checking out aforementioned The Babadook instead. If that type of “elevated horror” (again, my apologies but I didn’t come up with the term, so don’t kill the messenger) might I suggest the fun and very entertaining Lights Out. Either way, you probably won’t be left feeling like you wasted your time the way I did with this one.
Sommer’s Score: 5 out of 10
And you can check out more horror content below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
Double Tap Baby!