The Boogeyman

This adaptation was made on a limited budget as it is obviously a college project, but despite it, the setting is well done and manages to maintain a sense of suspense and terror. Stephen King's story is summarized in this short film, but they only took the most essential of the plot, without the need to focus as much on Lester's conversation with Harper as on the original story that spends a lot of time to go deeper into the state. Lester's emotional Here the story is shorter and the environment is responsible for transmitting Lester's fear and the panic he suffers. In a certain way, Stephen King managed to capture his vision of the fear of the Boogeyman as something that can terrify adults. Especially when said character becomes a metaphor for the danger that children can suffer in the hands of dangerous people. This really is one of the best short horror films I've seen despite its limited budget and it manages to be scary enough to reflect King's chilling vision. My rating for this movie is 8/10.

The scariest things about this ultra-low budget short are the opening titles and jarring score that tries far too hard to mimic Wendy Carlos' 'The Shining' score. It does not succeed.

Even as a student film, it's contrived and poorly executed. Framing is off (and not in an 'artistic' way), direction seems scatterbrained (and not in a 'good horror film' way), and the soundtrack seems out of sync in places (enough to draw attention away from the story). The climactic end scene is anything but, and even confusing.

Steer clear of this slow, tired adaptation - it doesn't represent the story well at all - and read King's original composition. The out-of-print VHS (part of the 'Nightshift Collection') is only worth hunting down if you're a serious collector of Stephen King or amateur/student horror attempts.

Interesting 28 minute short film based on a Stephen King short story from his popular Night Shift collection. While most may find the twist pretty predictable, what makes it really enjoyable is the 80s style synth score and creepy camera work that also manages to hide the films extremely low budget. Michael Read who would go on to have a supporting role in Army of Darkness does a fine job as well. Overall worth the watch though nothing spectacular.

How this short film has a 4.7 is seriously beyond me. This is a fantastic short! Sure the ending isn't that great, but it stays really close to Stephen King's original short story. I could only find a VHS rip on youtube for this (since I am reading and watching everything Stephen King) and the grainy quality just adds to the eerie tone of the film. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a interest in either Stephen King's work or the other Dollar Baby adaptations.

The story is decent and quite faithful to King's original, and performance of Michael Earl Reid, playing a man who is trying to explain to his psychiatrist that the Boogeyman exists and that it killed his children, is impressive. But overall, the movie is pale and boring and more or less it's a waste of time. But considering the fact that this is pretty much "one man show", where Jeff Schiro did the screenplay, directing, editing and music, and on top of that this is his movie debut, I can not bury it completely. I do not like it, but I respect the efforts.

4/10