Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Boogeyman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 10, 2023

If I may be permitted a probably unexpected brief song parody, I would like to announce this film with a very slight rearrangement of a venerable Cole Porter lyric for a famous song from Kiss Me Kate:

Another openin' of closet doors
Reveals a monster down on all fours.

While I breathlessly await my residual check and/or cease and desist demand from the Porter Estate, let me clarify by stating it was just a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned in my Cobweb Blu-ray review how many films have opted to exploit the almost atavistic terror that a lot of kids in particular tend to experience when confronted by spooky things like slightly open closet doors (I reveal my own tangentially related childhood fear in that review, which had to do with a staircase without traditional risers). In this particular instance, the titular spook is not necessarily confined to closets, even if the film begins with just such a depiction, but the sense of "not being alone" in an old house that has already seen its fair share of tragedy suffuses this piece, which has the added imprimatur of having been based on a (very) short story by some guy named Stephen King or something like that.

As is mentioned in the making of featurette included as a supplement on this disc, King's original piece was just a few pages and was confined entirely to a therapist's office, where an apparently dissociative guy named Lester Billings shared an unlikely and obviously relatively brief story of a child killing creature which had decimated his family. Billings (David Dastmalchian) is on hand in this cinematic adaptation, but probably unavoidably the story had to be expanded for this film version, though rather interestingly that expansion is achieved by focusing on the family of the therapist rather than Billings himself, who is almost a McGuffin in this enterprise, introducing the concept of a Boogeyman and then shuffling off this mortal coil in appropriately Gothic fashion.

The therapist is Will Harper (Chris Messina), who is experiencing trauma even before the boogeyman makes his appearance, due to the recent tragic death of his wife, a death which has also understandably roiled Will's daughters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), and in fact it's arguable that the film's actual focus is at least as much if not more on Sadie than it is on Will once things kick in high gear. Billings makes what appears to be a rather cryptic comment about the boogeyman coming when a parent doesn't pay sufficient attention to a child, but in the case of the Harper family, it may be more a case of traumatized individuals retreating to their private corners in order to nurse their emotional wounds than it is an actual instance of parental neglect. Suffice it to say that the result is ultimately the same, with some sort of menacing presence haunting the Harpers which feeds on negativity and unexpressed fears.

As is also briefly alluded to in the making of featurette, one of the things that often sets King's writing apart from other horror masters is how he so expertly weaves in what might be termed certain human behavior dysfunctions, something that's hugely apparent in everything from Carrie to the recently reviewed The Mist 4K. Interestingly, that aspect is a bit more subtle, even subdued, here, due to the very fact that the Harpers have reached the first Kubler Ross stage of grief, namely denial (at least with regard to how they communicate with each other), and then parked themselves there. That may function in somewhat the same way as the more traditional "bad behaviors" in those two other King adaptations do, but emotionally it's completely different and may actually give this story more of an actual edge.

That's probably the plus side of what The Boogeyman has to offer, but on the minus end things are awfully rote a lot of the time, with traditional jump scares, startle effects on the soundtrack, and even some of the interactions with the titular beast, which kind of amusingly for me at least were near duplicates of a couple of scenes from the aforementioned Cobweb. My colleague Brian Orndorf was even less impressed with the film than I was, and those interested can read Brian's thoughts here.

The Boogeyman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Boogeyman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The making of featurette shows a few fleeting shots of what look like Arri cameras, and the IMDb offers a 4K DCP as its sole technical data point as of the writing of this review. This is a rather stylish affair whatever the limitations of the screenplay, and the film is especially notable for only offering the briefest of glimpses of its monster, and even then not for a good while into the story, allowing the angst to build courtesy of a lot of shadowy environments and really interesting framings that tend to understandably emphasize things like doorways (with the closet aspect, and all). As even a cursory glance at the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review may indicate, there are also any number of rather interesting grading and/or lighting choices throughout the film, so that some scenes can be bathed in everything from reds to blues to greens. Perhaps surprisingly, then, detail levels remain mostly consistent throughout the presentations, faltering only in some of the very darkest material, where it's hard to see any details, let alone fine detail levels.

The Boogeyman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Boogeyman has an effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that may indulge in more than a few auditory clichés, including those aforementioned startle effects, but which provides a nicely immersive listening experience. The emphasis on unseen interlopers is nicely established with some "unexplained" sound effects that can emanate from the surround channels as Sadie approaches an almost absurd number of half open closet doors this story offers. The score often attains near cacophonous proportions in the most overwrought moments, but also establishes its presence throughout the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Boogeyman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Into the Darkness (HD; 16:00) is a decent enough EPK, but one which kind of elides what was evidently a pretty drastic rewrite along the way, at least from the sound of things.


• Outtakes (HD; 1:48)

Additionally a digital copy is included.

The Boogeyman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's absolutely no doubt that The Boogeyman is scary, but they're often scares you've probably experienced before in any number of other films. King completists may want to check this out, even if it has relatively little to do with King's original formulation. Technical merits are solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.