The Boogeyman (2023) Review

 "It's the thing that comes for your kids when you're not paying attention."

-Lester Billings

Will Harper (Chris Messina) starts seeing a new patient, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), who claims all of his children were killed by the Boogeyman.  Will dismisses Lester as being disturbed, but soon Will's children start catching glimpses of something hiding in the dark.

Spoilers below.  In short, this is a technically competent movie with a thoroughly unoriginal and disappointing script.

What Works:

The best part of this movie is the opening sequence.  We're introduced to an adorable little kid who is tormented and quickly murdered by the Boogeyman.  It's genuinely disturbing and made my skin crawl.  It perfectly sets the tone and establishes that no one is safe from the Boogeyman.  It's a shame the rest of the movie doesn't follow up on this.

The performances are excellent across the board.  The three members of the Harper family are played very well.  I loved the drama between these characters.  Their internal conflict and family turmoil is much more interesting than any of the stuff with the Boogeyman.  David Dastmalchian doesn't get much screen-time, but he does a great job as Lester, who is the main character of the original short story.  None of the problems with this movie come from the actors.

Finally, this is a technically well made movie.  There is some interesting cinematography and unique and fun lighting.  It looks great.  I especially like the use of Christmas lights and Sawyer's (Vivien Lyra Blair) ball of light.

What Sucks: 

The problem with this movie boils down to the story.  It's a hackneyed film and while watching it for the first time, I felt like I had seen it before dozens of times.  It borrows a lot from other horror movies, which is fine, but it doesn't do enough to set itself apart.

It's also not a great adaptation of the short story.  Granted, the original short story is very short.  It's pretty much just Lester talking to a psychologist.  We do get that scene in the movie.  It's just that the focus of the films is very different from the short story and much less interesting.  The short story is about a guy dealing with the deaths of his children.  This movie would have been better if it had focused on the children trying to fight back against the Boogeyman on their own or dealt with the aftermath of their deaths and how the parents respond.  Instead, the movie focuses on the Harper family and the Boogeyman acts as a metaphor for trauma.  It's about the family's lack of communication after a tragedy strikes the family.  That's uninspired and a trope I'm very tired of.  It's a shame because there was a much more interesting direction to take the story.

Finally, the pacing is not very good.  The movie is about 100 minutes long, but it felt 3 hours long.  By the middle of the movie I was getting very bored.  There just wasn't enough here to hold my interest and keep me engaged while watching characters explore dark hallways.

Verdict:

The Boogeyman starts strong and has good performances and technical elements.  However, none of this can save a story that ignores every interesting element in favor of a story that we've seen done a million times.  It's a boring film, but you can see how to make it an infinitely better movie.  That's pretty much the worst thing a movie can be. 

 4/10: Bad