Although there are many films with similar subject matter, many people will ignore this story as unoriginal and start naming a whole battery of films that would not be better. However, it is forgotten that this story is based on a short story by horror master Stephen King and dates back to 1973. Of course you cannot tinker with the story in such a way that it becomes a completely different film, but because the story is already a lot older than people think, it's best not to think that the movie just isn't good because there are many other movies that look like it, because The Boogeyman just turned out to be a more than fine horror movie. At the helm is director Rob Savage, who has impressed in recent years with The Host and Dashcam in the found footage horror segment. The director can handle the darkness well and knows how to build up the tension by showing the minimal.
The film immediately opens with a nasty scene, in which a young sleeping child is killed by something. This controversial opening immediately arouses interest in the how and what and especially why. After this, the story moves to the Harper family, with the father and two daughters coming to terms with their mother's recent death. Father Will is a therapist who one day gets a stranger into his room with a disturbing story about the death of his children and ends up committing suicide in their home. The youngest daughter Sawyer is afraid of the dark and is sure that there is a monster in her closet, but of course no one believes her. It is thrown on the loss of her mother and the suicide of the strange man that awakens an ultimately strong fantasy in the child. The story is strong and well put together up to that point and the tension is built up perfectly. You can leave that to a writer like Stephen King for the monster in the closet idea and the childish fears that come with it, of course, but in this one the director shows himself to be a skilled person to translate this oppressively and well to the screen.
The second act of the film moves more towards the visual and we actually get to see the shadow monster. The psychological effect is a bit off from the film, but the tension remains well present. This is also done smartly by often working with the color red, something that will eventually get on your nerves a bit (and that is meant in a positive way). Eventually the puzzle pieces come together and you get an idea of what the victims of the shadow monster have to do. The result is an explosive ending, which is actually a bit predictable. Perhaps that is the one point that many critics might have been right about. But this does not detract from the fun for the rest and in the end if you watch the film carefully, a great horror film has been delivered. Nowhere is the film boring, nowhere does the film take too long, the tension is built up well and there is no superfluous gore present, in fact. On the gore level, the film is very tame and then it is of course always nice if you manage to keep a film like this exciting, so The Boogeyman does exactly what it should do.
The Boogeyman has become a great horror film based on a short story by Stephen King. The film is exciting and the makers respond well to the childish fears of a monster in the closet or under your bed. No unnecessary filth or an extremely bloody whole, no, The Boogeyman plays more with the viewer's imagination. Towards the end, all brakes are finally released and perhaps that is the part where the director should or should have been a little more subdued, but okay. In the end, it doesn't really make the movie worse at all. The cast does a great job for the rest and the film is simply excellent for an evening of horror entertainment. The stories that the film would not be original is nonsense, but well, it's just what you expect from it and in addition, the story of The Boogeyman is older than many acclaimed horror films that deal with the same subject. What you can do best is just watch the movie and don't think too much about other movies.
