The Boogeyman - The scoop and digest

Stephen King's 1973 very short story of same name has been adapted several times, but Rob Savage is the first to apply extra meat to bones.

For shiggles, two unrelated franchises exist.

The Boogeyman (1980), Boogeyman II (1983) aka Revenge of the Boogeyman and Return of the Boogeyman (1994) aka Boogeyman III.

Boogeyman (2005), Boogeyman 2 (2007) and Boogeyman 3 (2008).

Anyway.

Sophie Thatcher - Sadie Harper

Chris Messina - Dr. Will Harper

Vivien Lyra Blair - Sawyer Harper

Marin Ireland - Rita Billings

David Dastmalchian - Lester Billings

Summary

The Harpers (Sadie, her younger sister Sawyer and therapist father Will) are still coming to terms with the death of their family matriarch, who was killed in a car accident.

A seemingly disturbed man called Lester Billings tells Will a sinister entity killed his kids, and thinks it's now latched onto him.

Later at the Harper's home, Sadie finds Lester's body hanging inside her mother's art closet.

Soon after, Sadie notices a strange mold growing around the house and a creature begins to terrorise Sawyer.

Will initially dismisses the situation, until he's forced to take shit seriously.

Shadows of grief

Performances are good, jump scares can be effective and definitely at its ominous best when silent.

Unfortunately, action-based climax is devoid of suspense.

The involvement of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (who also co-wrote screenplay with Mark Heyman), is presumably why creature is similar to the alien in A Quiet Place.

Sadie learns from Lester's estranged wife Rita that beastie hides in darkness.

Just turn on the fucking lights already.

When Sawyer looks underneath her bed, a cute riff on Poltergeist (1982) plays out.

From what I can remember, there's a couple of nods to Stephen King.

Lester lives at 217 (The Shining novel) and the Harpers reside at 19 (an important number in author's universe).