Everyone remembers stories of the Boogeyman from when they were a kid but the scare factor behind him hasn’t really stood the test of time in the same way as stories of vampires or werewolves. They’re just at completely different levels the whole time. This movie does a fun job of updating the mythos but honestly it feels a lot more like a mini Cloverfield monster as opposed to the Boogeyman you’d be thinking of. Honestly if you played your cards right with this film it would be a thriller instead of a horror as you could see a lot of big fight scenes taking place.

Okay so the movie starts with Will doing his best to raise his two daughters Sadie and Sawyer after their mother died in a tragic accident. He is a professional psychiatrist but while he is able to help others, Will hasn’t been able to come to terms with his own situation. As a result he refuses to bring the topic up with his daughters as well which hasn’t been good for their mental health. Sawyer is already afraid of the dark as it is and that’s before the Boogeyman shows up. Well one day a crazy guy runs into the house and starts to talk about monsters. Will decides that he knows how to handle this and leaves the guy alone in his living room while he runs to the kitchen to call the cops. By the time Will returns, the guy seemingly destroyed himself and unfortunately his eldest daughter Sawyer watched this. The traumas are growing now but what if the guy wasn’t crazy. What if a monster is around targeting kids all around the world?

This is one of those movies where we know there is a supernatural monster right out of the gate so of course we’re waiting for the heroes to realize this. While I talked about the opening with the main characters, there was a scene even sooner where a child is murdered by the Boogeyman so we know that he’s around right out of the gate. The Boogeyman only targets kids for some reason but absolutely does not mind collateral damage. If you get in his way then you will very quickly end up dead.

I will say that Will tends to be a very annoying character here. Obviously death can be very hard for some and the effects will vary from person to person. However, as the father Will does need to get it together to at least have a brave face for his kids. Refusing to talk about the subject and not helping during counseling is just being selfish by that point. Yeah the events of the film wouldn’t be all that different if he did talk since the Boogeyman doesn’t care about such things but their bond would have at least been a whole lot stronger.

Sadie is a solid character throughout who is trying to find answers and protect the family. She only weakens midway through when it comes to her “friends”. I haven’t seen a faker group of friends in a minute though. Really there is only one who has been a close friend for a while but now that girl has made other friends who don’t actually like Sadie. Sadie makes the mistake of trying to be close to them anyway and ultimately this doesn’t work out too well. Sadie even gets involved with drugs and really starts to fall down the dark path real quick.

She’s also not very smart in being tricked by a crazy lady and tied up in an abandoned house though. Stranger danger may be a meme at some points when characters take it too far but scenarios like this are why the constant warnings are always appropriate. I could not believe that Sadie just fell for it like this. Cmon you can’t let that happen. There’s just no way. Her little sister Sawyer isn’t particularly helpful but she’s a much younger kid so I’ll cut her a bit of slack.

Also the guy that broke into the study in the first scene didn’t have much of a plan. One of the most annoying things in a film like this is when the traumatized guy tries to talk about monsters and demons while somehow expecting everyone to believe him. You gotta think a little here. Nobody is going to believe a story like that so you have to either lie and make up a believable story while getting the person you’re talking too to do what you want them to do or you just don’t mention it and try something else. Even if Will had believed him…what could he do about it? It’s not like you can just call the cops and have them find the Boogeyman. At least the lady later on had a concrete plan so there are ways to trap it but again you’d need someone to absolutely believe you and that’s not going to happen. And you clearly know that it hides in doorways so why would you walk towards one? I can’t even….

Now when it comes to the Boogeyman, he seems a bit weaker than you’d expect. In most of these horror films they tend to skew too far into the other direction where the monster is completely unstoppable so I’m not entirely opposed to this but the Boogeyman seems like he could be defeated by a single well equipped soldier. He’s not immune to fire or explosions and even bullets seem like they would be enough to put him down if you have solid rounds. Now you could make the case for a lot of vague powers for this guy since he does seem to move with incredible speed. Maybe slight teleportation or sheer invisibility but when we see him the monster seems more like a Xenomorph. Relying on physical abilities to get the job done.

Again the design is cool (When we actually see it which is very rare in the film) but it doesn’t really feel like the Boogeyman. It also seems a bit ineffectual because of how it has a hard time actually defeating its opponents. It wasn’t able to finish off Sawyer in one on one combat and had a lot of trouble with the lady in the house. Even the guy who broke into Will’s house lasted a little while when you’d think that the fight would be over in an instant. No wonder the Boogeyman only goes after kids, it would be completely doomed against full adults after a while!

The film definitely starts off with a rather brutal moment but after that it’s fairly tame. It’s definitely not as violent as the average horror title and avoids a good amount of pitfalls. We even get a climax with a surprising amount of action. Although again I’m a little skeptical here, the creature couldn’t have just finished off the 2 characters before Sadie showed up? You have to suspend a lot of disbelief for the whole climax because as cool as it looked, the power levels didn’t really add up.

Overall, I actually thought this film was fairly solid. It’s not the scariest title out there since it feels like a thriller for the most part but the characters are solid. All of the scenes at school tend to be annoying and the friends are all bad but this felt like a well crafted horror title. The ending is a bit weak since I was expecting a strong twist/cliffhanger moment to end things with a bang but I’ll take what I can get. I’d recommend checking this one out if you’re interested in seeing a modern take on the Boogeyman. Just be warned that it’s not much of a man in this one and just feels more like a classic creature.

Overall 6/10