The Boogeyman’s director says a failed Star Wars gag led to the movie’s scariest scenes
The Boogeyman is a mood. Based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King, the film is a grounded supernatural drama, the rare summer horror movie that finds room for both trauma exploration and a nightmarish shadow monster. A pair of striking performances, from Yellowjackets’ Sophie Thatcher and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Vivien Lyra Blair, ground the haunted hijinks in the perspective of two young women dealing with… let’s say an overwhelming amount of life piled on top of them all at once.
As the state of horror veers toward the extreme/high-concept, with breakouts like Barbarian and M3GAN proving audiences will go wherever the hell a visionary maniac will take them, the latest from Shudder-friendly filmmaker Rob Savage (Host, Dashcam) feels like a gamble. The Boogeyman is buttoned-up and polished — not what fans might expect from Savage, the guy who shot a horror flick using only Zoom, but arguably the sign of a versatile filmmaker. 20th Century Studios seems to agree; though The Boogeyman was reportedly shot and targeted for a streaming release, it was eventually bumped up to the theatrical release calendar.
Why was a throwback Stephen King studio movie the obvious choice for an indie darling, a director known to cult horror enthusiasts for challenging formal norms and embracing abrasive filmmaking? (Dashcam rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and Savage knows it.) Where was there room to play? Given what an exciting voice Savage is in horror right now, Polygon jump(scared) at the chance to talk to him about what he brought to The Boogeyman.
[Ed. note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]
Polygon: The Boogeyman feels like a left turn after your previous two indie horror movies. It’s
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