This Monster Can Remain in the Closet.

Author Stephen King seems to have had a number of his works adapted for the big screen over the years. From Salem’s Lot to IT, the writer seems to have an abundance of literary content that Hollywood can pull from at their leisure. While King’s adapted work has some truly memorable films, unfortunately 2023’s The Boogeyman is not one of them. Let’s find out why on Gaber’s Two Cents.

The film starts off simple enough, spooky ambience, jump scare, cut to black, title card. Predictable is not always a bad thing, especially when the film diverts your expectations right after getting into the fold of things. However, that’s the problem with The Boogeyman. As the film stretches from 10, 15, to 30 minutes, there are just no surprises to be had.

Our main character just recently lost a loved one, is having a hard time in school, and has a restrained relationship with her father. It’s almost as if writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods looked to a Horror Film Basics textbook when writing the screenplay for this film. The problem is we have seen this all before, and admittedly in much better films.

Yet another problem that plagues the film is just how unscary it all is. It’s hard to create tension when you couldn’t care less about the characters who are involved within the terror, and that sets the film back quite a bit. Some could point these issues to the PG-13 rating that was given to the film, but I disagree. One of the most chilling films I have ever witnessed is 2002’s The Mothman Prophecies, which believe it or not is a PG-13 film.

There are obviously a lot of problems in this film, but are there any saving graces? Sort of. Character actor Chris Messina does a stand up job as the father that doesn’t realize the extent of the horror inside of his home. He does a great job of showing that he is out of his element in both raising his daughters and the unexplained phenomena within his house. However, he isn’t the main focus here, and it definitely hurts the film because of it.

One more tiny positive tidbit contained in the film is the creature design of The Boogeyman itself. With two hands opposing one another for the creatures mouth, and a lanky yet imposing frame beneath the creature, it’s a shame that it spends most of the films runtime in dimly lit shots, usually only exposing itself in lazy jump scares or stalking from the shadows.

All in all, the film had the ingredients to be the summers hottest horror film. From Stephen Kings source material, a game Chris Messina, and a creature design that genuinely gets under your skin. However, all of these things can’t save a film that is so by the numbers you could leave halfway through and essentially predict the films final act, proving that some monsters should just stay imaginary. All that and more is why The Boogeyman received this particular Cent Score.

Cent Score: 1 Cent

It doesn’t deserve our attention so why should it deserve yours?

Thanks for checking out this weeks Film & TV piece. Feel free to tap that thumb’s up button down below and subscribe if you want to be notified for new posts each week. Check back next week for an all new Comics piece. I’ll see you all next time on Gaber’s Two Cents.