Stephen King’s 1973 short story has been brought to the screen by Rob Savage from a screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and Mark Heyman. Chris Messina stars as therapist Will Harper who, along with his two daughters, Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), is grieving the death of his wife. When a desperate patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, he brings in a terrifying entity that will threaten the entire family.
To a great extent, this is pretty bog-standard stuff. The jump scares come along pretty much as expected and the monster is reminiscent of so many I have seen before. Annoyingly, even though the protagonists work out the beast only appears when it is dark, they constantly seem to be walking around in pitch darkness!
However, there are some things to recommend The Boogeyman. The manifestation of grief is well handled and the cruelty of teenage girls feels pretty realistic. Messina and Thatcher are both better than the material they are in and made me care about what happened to them.
Rating: 6 out of 10