In the last decade, Master of Horror Stephen King has seen quite a bit of success when it comes to the quality and reception of films based on his work. After somewhat of a drought in great-quality adaptations during the 2000s (with exception to The Mist and 1408), Andrés Muschietti’s two-part reboot of King’s 1986 novel IT became two of the highest-grossing (numbers one and six, according to Forbes) horror movies of all time.
King has also seen success on streaming platforms, and while his adaptations haven’t done massive streaming numbers, the general consensus of quality for movies and shows like 1922, Gerald’s Game, and Apple TV+’s Lisey’s Story, has been mostly positive.
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With the amount of massive success that horror films saw at the box office in 2022, it’s no surprise that King’s next adaptation, The Boogeyman, will no longer be streaming on Hulu as originally planned, but will have a theatrical release on June 2nd, 2023. A similar circumstance happened with Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, which was originally slated for an HBO Max release, but will now hit theaters this April.
Though the upcoming movie is said to be quite different than King’s original Night Shift short story, the team of screenwriters has his support, and received positive feedback via an interview on The Kingcast. The Boogeyman will be directed by Rob Savage, the filmmaker behind 2020’s super-hit streaming film, Host. The movie was written for the screen by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo behind A Quiet Place and Haunt, Mark Heyman (Black Swan), and Akela Cooper, who recently wrote Malignant in 2021 and M3GAN in 2022.
The film will star Chris Messina (Devil), Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, The Book of Boba Fett), David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad, Ant-Man), Marin Ireland (The Dark and the Wicked), and Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi Wan Kenobi, Birdbox). This will be the second time this story has been adapted for the screen, as Jeff Shiro directed a 28-minute short film to go along with Frank Darabont’s The Woman in the Room. The two stories made up a 1982 two-part anthology film.
According to IMDB, the synopsis of The Boogeyman reads:
A psychiatrist, where a man named Lester Billings talks to the doctor about the “murders” of his three young children, describing the events of the past several years. His first two children died mysteriously of apparently unrelated causes (diagnosed as crib death and convulsions, respectively) when left alone in their bedrooms. The only commonalities were that the children cried “Boogeyman!” before being left alone, and the closet door ajar after discovering their corpses, even though Billings is certain the door was shut.
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The Boogeyman is just one of several upcoming Stephen King adaptations, which include a Salem’s Lot remake, an adaptation of his Richard Bachman novel, The Long Walk, and Paul Greengrass’ re-telling of King’s most recent dark fantasy novel, Fairy Tale. Movies based on King’s work can certainly be hit or miss, but at least we’re getting to see this on the big screen!
