The Boogeyman (2023)

MORE SPOILER-FREE MINI-REVIEWS @ www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/mini-reviews-2023-edition "The Boogeyman quickly becomes one of my favorite horror flicks of this year! It won't leave any viewers used to these formulaic stories surprised, but director Rob Savage tremendously elevates a film that would otherwise fall into oblivion once the end credits started rolling. Creative, clever build-ups for truly suspenseful sequences, as well as efficient jumpscares that I haven't experienced in a long time. But the cast is essential to the success of this movie. I've no words to describe how im…

CinemaSerf

6.0

Jun 7, 2023

Oh well, I suppose I was being overly optimistic in expecting anything different from this. The "Harper" family are still grieving after the death of the wife/mother and with each struggling to deal with this aftermath the father (Chris Messina), elder daughter "Sadie" (Sophie Thatcher) and the younger one "Sawyer" (Vivien Lyra Blair) are all just drifting along. When dad "Will", who is a therapist, gets a visit from "Billings" (the always slightly sinister looking David Dastmalchian) and then a few pots of mother's paint get spilled, it becomes clear that the eponymous creature is out to capi…

I've watched a couple of former cinematic takes on Stephen Kings Boogeyman novel and this is by far, the least inspiring. The real issue lies, in what can best be described, as the treatment of the tale of the cruel, child stalking creature, that potentially lives in every closet. Its tone is obsessively analysing, of the dysfunctional family dynamic, to the point of neurosis. Yes, grieving families don't work too well, unsurprisingly. The less than optimistic over statement of this fact, overtakes the actual horror story. This, in turn, renders this film, too dark and too depressing, f…