Film: The Boogeyman
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair
Director: Rob Savage
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 98 mins

A horror-thriller adaptation of Stephen King’s story, ‘The Boogeyman’ is a ‘suggestive’ thriller of sorts. The serviceable narrative basically puts out the bare threads of the story and allows the young actors to do all the mind work. There’s no violence here but jump scares abound as both the young actors Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Blair do a good job of asking the question ‘What’s around the corner?’ with the perfect amount of dread.

The narrative focus is on a grief-stricken family - Dr. Will Harper (Chris Messina) and his two daughters, Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and the younger Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), following the death of the wife/mother who passed away by way of a car accident a year ago. The adapted script by “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck, Mark Heyman, and Bryan Woods, establishes the dark-loving, door-bursting, child-terrorizing night monster in broad terms with the underlying significance of loss, aiding it. The girls are terrorized at night by something we only see in brief flashes but the general tone here is rather unpleasant and makes the film feel much longer than it is. So peek-a-boo jump scares are made to do the trick of trying to scare you.