There are a number of big movies coming to theaters this summer, including plenty of family-friendly options to pass the time while the kids are out of school. However, for those craving something a little more unsettling, you’ll soon be able to get your horror fix, when The Boogeyman hits the big screen on June 2. The adaptation of Stephen King’s 1973 short story is the next of the author’s many upcoming movies, miniseries and more, and the reviews are here to expand what we know about the adaptation.
The movie stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Vivien Lyra Blair (Bird Box) as sisters mourning their mother’s death, with Chris Messina as their phsychiatrist father. The family’s lives are thrown even further into turmoil when a disturbed man (David Dastmalchian) arrives, claiming his children were killed by a monster that hides in the darkness. Early reactions from The Boogeyman’s screening at CinemaCon were positive, with moviegoers praising the acting, the action and edge-of-your-seat thrills, so what are the critics saying now? In CinemaBlend’s review of The Boogeyman, Eric Eisenberg rates it 4 out of 5 stars, saying this is a perfect movie to watch in a crowded theater. He continues:
I’d put it alongside Mark Pavia’s The Night Flier in a conversation about the best film based on a single Stephen King short story (which excludes anthologies like George A. Romero’s Creepshow). That being said, it’s not a game-changer; it’s an effective, well-made, and entertaining horror movie that forges a metaphor about grief with a staple of childhood terror. While treading some familiar ground, it delivers a haunting atmosphere that seeps from the screen into the theater and is anchored by tremendous turns from its two young leads Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair.
Kim Newman of Empire also rates The Boogeyman 4 out of 5 stars, calling it an “ungimmicky ghost story” powered by gnawing grief and crafted to deliver maximum scares with minimum fuss. The critic writes:
It’s a full-on spook picture, which wrings scares and shivers out of an almost indecently basic premise (a monster in the closet) and delivers enough disturbing imagery to give audiences the jitters for a couple of months.
Jonathan Sim of ComingSoon.net gives it a “Good” 7 out of 10, saying we’ve seen a lot of this kind of horror before, but director Rob Savage brings it to life and proves that he knows how to catch the audience off-guard. More from the review:
While there may be some who look down on PG-13 horror — this isn’t one of the scarier movies to come out in recent years — The Boogeyman has a lot to offer. It’s one-part Lights Out, one-part The Babadook, and it scares you while having moments of levity that don’t break the tension. It wraps up most of its story threads well and pays tribute to the King story it’s based on without sticking too closely to it. If you’ve been looking for a horror fix for summer 2023, this one is not a bad choice.
Daisy Phllipson of Dextero says this movie is well worth the watch for horror junkies, even with a monster that is a little too digitized. The jump scares make up for all of that, and the critic rates it 4 out of 5 stars, saying:
The Boogeyman is the classic ‘behind you’ style of scary (they even say it at one point), bound to leave audiences checking their cupboards and under the bed before they go to sleep at night. Savage makes good use of lighting and sound design to build tension for the rug-pull jump scares. The filmmaker has a way of baiting the audience into thinking they’re in for a jolter, before lowering the pace – and just when those guards go down, he ramps it up to 11 with an unexpected shock. It’s extremely effective, especially in the earlier scenes of the movie when we’re yet to be introduced to the light-loathing insectoid.
Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gives the movie just 2.5 skulls out of 5, saying The Boogeyman offers plenty of well-executed scares that will stick with moviegoers, with compliments going to the cast. However, it fails to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. The critic continues;
It’s the scares that audiences will remember most, though, as the barebones setup doesn’t build upon its core concept or forge new ground. Savage nails the fear, but the filmmaker also succeeds a little too well in making his titular monster a vague avatar for viewers to graft their personal fears onto; the effective build-up culminates in a potent but generic nightmare.
While possibly not breaking any new ground in the horror genre, The Boogeyman sounds like one of the more satisfying Stephen King short story adaptations. The critics have no trouble recommending this for anyone in need of a horror fix when it hits the big screen on Friday, June 2. See what other horror movies are on tap for 2023, and check out our 2023 Movie Release Schedule to see what else is coming soon to theaters.
