‘The Boogeyman’ movie review: Enter for your jolly fix of chills

A still from ‘The Boogeyman’

If you have read Stephen King’s super-scary short story ‘The Boogeyman’, do not feel all superior for knowing the ending — I almost wanted to shout it out to the noisy people sitting in the row behind. The film has a different ending. While the Rob Savage-directed film with story and screenplay by A Quiet Place’s Scott Beck and Bryan Woods is not as unsettling as the 1973 short story, it is an effective little thriller.

Apparently King was so pleased with the adaptation that he recommended a theatrical release over a streaming one. Will Harper (Chris Messina), a therapist, is so traumatised on losing his wife to an accident that he all but ignores his grieving daughters, Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair). He leaves it to another therapist, Dr. Weller (LisaGay Hamilton), to help the girls come to terms with their mother’s passing.

A troubled man, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), walks into Harper’s office talking about an entity that stalked his family. Harper has a bad feeling about Billings which comes chillingly true. Sawyer, like all children, and quite a few grownups too, is scared of the dark and of the monsters lurking in closets and under the bed. Her fears seem to have been exacerbated by her mother’s death.

Sadie has the usual high-school issues complete with mean girls despite having a good friend in Bethany (Madison Hu). Sadie becomes obsessed with the Billings and feels the key to unlock all the Harper family’s terrors lies in the ruined old house, where Lester’s wife, Rita (Marin Ireland,) lives with the ghosts of neglect and despair.

The Boogeyman has a few effective jump scares and thrilling sequences (that returning tooth brought on a delicious shiver) as well as the usual horror movie silliness including going into dark spaces shouting, ‘hello’. Unlike other Stephen King adaptations such as The Shining or Carrie, which looked at horror as a way to understand human frailties and fears, The Boogeyman chooses a straightforward route, which is not such a bad thing. It could have been more nuanced, but has enough suspense to keep you from nodding off or looking at your phone. And Vivien Lyra Blair (Princess Leia in Obi-Wan Kenobi) continues to be cute as a button.

The Boogeyman is currently running in theatres