Arts & Entertainment

‘The Boogeyman’: New horror film based on Stephen King short story hits theaters in US

By Guillermo Azabal

Los Angeles, Jun 2 (EFE).- The legend of the notorious, mythical hobgoblin that snatches away naughty children has arrived on the big screen with “The Boogeyman,” a 20th Century Studios film based on a decades-old, like-named short-story by renowned American horror author Stephen King.

“It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real,” reads the unsettling tagline for this supernatural horror picture directed by Britain’s Rob Savage (“Host” and “Dashcam”) and starring Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”) and 10-year-old Vivien Lyra Blair (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”).

“I remembered this short story from reading it as a child … (and) immediately saw that this could be a fantastic movie if we could touch on half of how scary that short story was,” Savage said in an interview with Efe.

“I wanted it to feel like (the boogeyman) was both flesh and blood – he was really a creature who was there, you could grapple with him, he was a physical threat – but he also could be anywhere. He could show up in any house. He’s going to follow these characters wherever they go.”

The movie tells the story of two sisters – high-school student Sadie Harper (Thatcher) and her younger sibling, Sawyer Harper (Blair) – who have lost their mother and are not receiving the emotional support they need from their father, Will Harper (Chris Messina), a therapist who is struggling with his own pain.

Into their crumbling domestic world steps a desperate patient of Will’s who is being tormented by a terrifying supernatural being that feeds on human suffering.

“I talked to some therapists and kind of got their opinion about the character and maybe what kind of therapy I’d be practicing. And then some great conversations with the director who really knows this genre,” Messina, who also appeared in the 2023 American biographical sports drama film “Air,” told Efe about his preparations for the role.

Although the original plan was for the film to premiere directly on streaming service Hulu, theatrical release was eventually decided upon after successful test screenings at the end of last year.

Prior to its release this Friday in the United States, the movie’s creators also wanted King to weigh in on the adaptation of his 1973 short story and went as far as to rent out his favorite movie theater in Portland, Maine, the author’s birth place, so he could attend a personal screening.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (“A Quiet Place”), as well as Mark Heyman (“Black Swan”), received screenwriting credits for the film, which was made on a budget of just under $40 million and is expected to battle it out with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures) for top box-office honors this weekend.

Other cast members of “The Boogeyman” include Marin Ireland (“The Umbrella Academy”), Madison Hu (“Bizaardvark”), LisaGay Hamilton (“Vice”) and David Dastmalchian (“Boston Strangler”).

This latest picture comes on the heels of the 2021 American supernatural horror film “The Black Phone,” which stars Ethan Hawke in the role of a psychotic child kidnapper and serial killer, a character inspired by the boogeyman. EFE

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