The Boogeyman will be terrifying audiences on the big screen this week (June 2), having already received positive reviews.
Directed by Rob Savage (Dashcam), The Boogeyman is a supernatural horror based on the work of Stephen King. It follows bereaved high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) who are haunted by a terrifying entity.
Other cast members include Chris Messina, Marin Ireland, Madison Hu, LisaGay Hamilton and David Dastmalchian.
Which Stephen King book is The Boogeyman based on?
The film is based on a short story by King, which was first published in the March 1973 issue of the American magazine Cavalier. It was later included in King’s 1978 collection of short stories, titled Night Shift.
According to Savage, the big screen adaptation of The Boogeyman has been positively received by King himself.
“We rented out his cinema and screened the movie for him in Maine,” the director told Empire. “I didn’t go because I was terrified that he was going to do a Shining on it and absolutely hate it. But apparently he jumped on numerous occasions, and then sent this lovely, lovely message to everyone who worked on the movie.
“And the next morning I get an email saying, ‘From Stephen King’. And he says, ‘Robert, I’m still thinking about your movie the next morning.’”
In the same interview, Savage explained how a sequence showing the monster had to be recut following an intense response from audiences at test screenings.
“The first time you see the creature, the audience screamed so loud, and then immediately started talking with their neighbours and chattering, that they completely missed the next lines,” Savage said. “So we had to recut it and build in 45 seconds of padding, just so they didn’t miss any vital information.”
In other King adaptations, an It prequel series titled Welcome To Derry is in development at HBO. The series promises to “expand the vision” of the recent movie adaptations and comes from the same director, Andy Muschietti.
