The Boogeyman
20th Century StudiosThroughout every single year, hundreds upon hundreds of horror films are released upon the public, some to cinemas and some to streaming. A large majority of them are, quite frankly, incredibly poor; the other slimmer portion being quite good. Then there's something like Rob Savage’s The Boogeyman, a film so keenly aware of its perfectly okay quality that it's tough not to see the "influence" of hundreds of other horror films strewn throughout its minuscule ninety minute runtime.
There's very little of note that happens with The Boogeyman besides an extremely basic premise that is sucking dry the "based on a Stephen King" formula that Hollywood has been so obsessed with for the last decade, no doubt influneced by Andy Muschetti’s enormous sucess with the IT franchise. The premise of Savage’s feature is simple: there is a monster — with quite the decent creature design — that lives in the shadows of childrens lives who are not given enough attention. From that very simple premise, the audience are then treated to around forty-five minutes of character set-up involving the death of a parent, a not so subtle treatment by the writers of whom can spoon feed a terribly on-the-nose metaphor about grief to whatever audience is willing to show up to this.
The Boogeyman involves incredibly standard horror performances, with much of the focus of those involved being as simplistic as looking off into the distance distraught, that and talking quietly to show fear or sadness with every performer being guilty of leaning into these simple and effortless tropes. Sophie Thatcher is given the most to work here, as she is, for all intents and purposes, the protagonist of the film. Thatcher does what she can with that material, but it is unfortunately very thin, as she just plays “grieving and scared” for ninety minutes. Nevertheless. her on-screen sister Sawyer, played by Vivien Blair, may give the best performance seen from a child actor in quite sometime, especially in that of a horror film.
On the technical side of things, there is a completely forgettable score from composer Patrick Jonsson with an emphasis on far too many piano jump scares, albeit with decent enough creature sound effects with the sound design on a whole being unremarkable yet inoffensive, not necessarily putting a foot wrong but nowhere near as thrilling to elevate the tone and tension The Boogeyman needs. This does, however, lead to one of the more applaudable aspects of the film: the camera work. With a steady hand unafraid to linger on the shadows and willing to twist the world upside down, there's some beautifully filmed tension strewn from beginning to end by director of photography Eli Born. One specific scene involving Sawyer looking under her bed is done with simple yet effective movement, with the scare seen from a mile away, but the talent behind the camera elevating and powering the sequence itself to the best manner possible.
Ultimately, The Boogeyman is yet another piece of Horror not to break any new ground in the industry itself and continues some groan-inducing trends of the medium, but on the positive side, there is enough of a mixed bag here to make the right audience happy with the results. Disney and 20th Century Studios have been smart in pulling this from a straight to HULU release, and sticking it in theaters after audience testing with Savage notably now attracting major audiences after his COVID release of Host and the festival darling Dashcam drumming up publicity. However, when given the opportunity of a larger budget, and a larger as well as wider release strategy, Savage sadly disappoints with The Boogeyman unfortunately resulting in a "check the boxes" type of film, and while there is nothing remotely wrong with an enjoyable, if forgettable, ninety minutes, it is just that The Boogeyman is as simple and straight laced as that very description.