The Boogeyman: Everything We Know About The Stephen King Adaptation

Coming in 2023, Hulu’s The Boogeyman is a Stephen King adaptation that will see one of the author’s earliest stories radically altered for the big screen. Iconic horror author Stephen King’s back catalog is currently having a pretty impressive revival in 2022. The year will see some massive movie adaptions of the author’s work hit cinema screens as a Firestarter remake, a Salem’s Lot remake, and even a Children of the Corn remake vie to recreate the outsized box-office impact of It’s blockbuster horror success.

However, despite how many directors are re-imagining existing King adaptations, there are still some brave souls who are taking on old King stories for the first time. An independent short film adaptation of “I Know What You Need,” a short story from King’s 1978 debut collection Night Shift, will arrive this year. Meanwhile, a feature-length adaptation of “The Boogeyman,” another terrifying tale from the same collection, is currently filming with an impressive cast and set to arrive on Hulu in 2023.

Decades after the story’s publication, “The Boogeyman” will finally receive an adaptation next year. This has led some to wonder what the original story is about, and how will the movie change its plot. Like many of King’s short stories (including Night Shift’s original “Children of the Corn”), “The Boogeyman” is a sparse tale without much plot. However, this has not deterred one of the horror genre’s rising stars, director Rob Savage, from signing on to expand the story with some Sixth Sense-influenced flair. Details about the upcoming project are still sparse but, by the sounds of The Boogeyman’s earliest synopsis, the movie will change a lot of the original story while still holding onto the tale’s main theme and expanding on its scariest elements.

The Boogeyman Original Short Story Explained

First anthologized in Night Shift, “The Boogeyman” is an unsettling story of an unsympathetic protagonist telling a psychiatrist about the titular monster’s pursuit of him throughout his childhood and into adult life. Eventually, the ending reveals there’s a nasty surprise in store for the antihero. A lot like “Jerusalem’s Lot,” the prequel to vampire horror Salem’s Lot featured in the same anthology, “The Boogeyman” leaves most of its horrors to the imagination. As his cynical psychiatrist listens, disinterested, the narrator describes the horrific unsolved murders of his children, all of whom were found mysteriously killed after crying out about the boogeyman. Eventually, the protagonist heads out of the office, only to discover that his psychiatrist himself is the eponymous threat, coming to finally put the troubled main character out of his misery.

The Boogeyman’s Movie Adaptation

Although it has an effective twist and is one of the more unsettling stories in King’s first collection, “The Boogeyman” doesn’t boast much in the way of narrative complexity. It is essentially a darkly comic shaggy dog story, with the tale leading to a grim conclusion that is cleverly disguised but almost inevitable upon a re-read. As such, much like 2022’s upcoming Firestarter remake, the Stephen King adaptation will likely need to alter a lot of story details to seem fresh and original to a contemporary audience. Fortunately for horror fans, 2023’s The Boogeyman will be directed by Host helmer Rob Savage. The same helmer who created one of 2021’s most inventively surreal and jarring horror movies with Dashcam, Savage is an interesting talent who is more likely than most to find an effective way of telling this potentially predictable story.

The Boogeyman’s Cast and Synopsis

The Boogeyman movie adaptation stars Chris Messina, Sophie Thatcher, Marin Ireland, Madison Hu, and The Suicide Squad’s David Dastmalchian. Like any feature-length adaptation of a short story, the movie will be expanding on the original tale, meaning it is no surprise that the cast list is already longer than that of the original story’s set of characters. The Stephen King adaptation may borrow It’s approach by turning the story into a multi-generational tale of terror, judging by the enigmatic synopsis.

How The Boogeyman Changes King’s Story

According to The Boogeyman’s recently released synopsis, the movie’s protagonist is a psychologist father whose daughters are pursued by the eponymous villain after their dad’s patient has an encounter with him in their home. If that story sounds familiar, it could be because the premise of a psychologist being confronted by a troubled patient provides The Sixth Sense with its unsettling opening scene. However, there is no guarantee that The Boogeyman’s movie adaptation will owe a creative debt to that infamously twisty ‘90s horror mystery. After all, the synopsis could also imply that the movie will be a supernatural spin on Martin Scorsese’s deeply creepy Cape Fear, wherein a man targets the daughter of his enemy in order to torment the movie’s antihero.

Why The Boogeyman Needs To Change The Original Story

For much of its brief telling, King’s original story “The Boogeyman” is far too sad to be a fun horror read. Although it is full of tension and creepy details, the bulk of the tale is a man recounting the deaths of his small children and makes for deeply depressing reading as a result. It is entirely possible that Savage’s adaptation will pull no punches and kill off the hero’s children one-by-one. However, it is a lot more likely that, much like the upcoming Lovecraftian King adaptation From A Buick 8, the movie version will tone down the un-filmable elements and make the story more palatable for a streaming audience as a result.

1989’s original Pet Sematary is perhaps the most famous cinematic attempt to tap into King’s talent for making subjects as sad as the death of a child scary. That underrated Mary Lambert-directed effort used pitch-black comedy and an offbeat tone to make the bleak source material work for the movie, something its remake was unable to recapture in 2019. By dialing back the focus on the unutterable tragedy that is present in King’s original short story, “The Boogeyman” has the potential to be a cult classic like Lambert’s movie, rather than an unfortunate misfire like Pet Sematary‘s remake. This will mean changing of a lot of details from the original Stephen King story while keeping the tone intact, but if anyone is up to that challenge, The Boogeyman director Rob Savage should be the perfect candidate.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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