The Boogeyman(2023)(Happy Halloween #21)(Review)

Movies based on Stephen King’s works havs performed well lately and add on ideas introduced in the source material. Such is the case with The Boogeyman(2023) based on the story story with the same name that was included in Stephen King’s Night Shift collection which contains his best works he had in his career.

The story is about a grieving father who is also a therapist, and suddenly a disturbed man shows up on his doorstep seeking help. The father then finds out some monsters are real when his children are terrorized by a dark entity after the visit.

There are definitely creepy moments in this movie and one effect I enjoyed was scenes of using shadows to great effect with some trickery of light to its advantage. When the creature starts to manifest itself to the children, it uses the ability to imitate human voices as one of its tactics to terrorize them. It’s an expansion of a concept introduced in the original short story and it works really well.

When it comes to the creature design, it is a result of CGI, and you can tell. It was better to just leave it in the shadows because the full reveal, well it wasn’t terrible but it was obvious that it was a result of digital effects. The ending sees the whole family fighting for their lives against the creature.

I enjoyed this one for its creep factor and also because the power of grief was a part of it as well. Grief can create some very dark situations in horror movies and create absolute terrifying moments. I dont think it’s coincidence that some of most horrifying movies have grief involved. This movie definitely flirts with that same feeling. It’s something to enjoy for spooky season for sure. If you want to watch it for yourself, it is currently streaming on Hulu.

If you already seen The Boogeyman(2023), feel free to leave your thoughts below!

Till next time, stay scared!
-Tha Thrilla-