The Boogeyman has some jump scares but a lot of the horror is also psychological, about how our fears may summon up a physical reality. Sort of a tulpa that has been around for millennia. Maybe first summoned up when humans discovered fire and feared what hid in the daek beyond. Not just fear but grief may bring about the onset of the conditions which create The Boogeyman. High school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her little sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are distraught after the recent death of their mother. Their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist by profession, gives them neither the support nor the affection that they need. He tries but is crippled by his own pain and dense of loss which he refuses to verbalise.. A disturbed patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help, ends up committing suicide and brings in a strange entity that preys on the family and like a psychic vampire leeches off their greatest suffering. The monster when it appears is quite effective, even terrifying but on prior scenes the dark corners where it lurks beforehand, barely glimpsed also work well. This film is based on a classic Stephen King story and carries more depth than such a trope normally would. The lives of the children, their father and the disturbed patient are explored, no cardboard characters here, Good performances all round. Directed by Rob Savage from a screenplay by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods and Mark Heyman. 8/10.
