The Boogeyman (2023)

June 19, 2023 2:50 PM

Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, teenage Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it's too late.

Also starring Chris Messina, David Dastmalchian, Marin Ireland, Vivien Kyra Blair, Madison Hu, LisaGay Hamilton.

Directed by Rob Savage (Host). Screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Mark Heyman, based on a short story by Stephen King.

63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now playing in theaters. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

People will go into this with different expectations. Maybe they are hoping for a top shelf King adaptation. A summer scare fest. Or whatever.

I went in excited to see what Rob Savage, who had previously only worked in microbudget found footage could do with studio resources. And for me, he knocked it out of the park. His command of light and sound is superlative, he gets terrific performances, and he both delivers classic jump scares, and IDGAF what the rules are scares. The story is simple, elemental even, but I would guess that is exactly what Savage wanted. He's trying out a whole new toolbox here and he's really good at it.

I won't be shocked if his next movie is a huge success and people backtrack on this one, only then realizing all of the chops were already on display.

Good good stuff.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:54 PM on June 19, 2023

Did Savage ever look at the dailies? The visual elements are lack-luster, to say the least. Too gray.
posted by Ideefixe at 3:37 PM on June 19, 2023

I thought it looked great. His consistently inventive use of odd light sources, darkness that kind of ebbed and flowed...

When there was darkness overtaking a shot, he was doing it on the strength of film (or impressively film-like video software), so the tiniest swing of a light source would make sections of the screen briefly bright enough to make out then dark again.

I think having graduated from low budget found footage stuff, he likely was playing with how dark he could get things here and there. Given the story, it worked for me. I mean, it's literally a story about a monster that needs to be in the dark.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:26 PM on June 19, 2023

He said in his recent interview with Kermode and Mayo that his intention was not to "pull an A24" on the studio, but to make a straightforward, no-frills, PG-13 frightfest that could serve as a gateway for younger folks into deeper horror. I think it works just fine on that level, with the total lack of expectations that mission implies.
posted by mykescipark at 6:01 PM on June 19, 2023

Did Savage ever look at the dailies? The visual elements are lack-luster, to say the least.

I've noticed you tend to stream things, maybe it's your TV?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:52 AM on July 7, 2023