Sleep with the Lights On! Stephen King’s ‘The Boogeyman’ Affirms

Hush hush hush, here comes the Boogeyman!

The Boogeyman allegory could go on forever. But whether you regard it as superstition or not, the forthcoming horror feature film The Boogeyman will likely make you want to sleep with your lights on.

The official trailer for The Boogeyman came in a day ago, already garnering almost 30 million views. 

It doesn't show much of the frightening creature, except for a little girl who can't sleep without illumination, especially one basketball-sized nightlight that she tucks in bed with her. 

Her father asks what she’s afraid of and she points to the closet. He then goes to check the storage unit and affirms, 'monster check complete.' But once sound asleep, a cricking sound is heard from the doorknob before the storage unit bursts open in a Monsters Inc. fashion. 

An unseen being begins to sweep the room, hiding underneath the girl's bed. When she rolls the beam ball under the bed to check, we get a quick flash of the grotesque figure lurking.

The Boogeyman stems from the unbelievably creative mind of Stephen King, who crafted a short narrative of the same name, published in 1973. 

The horror thriller film chronicles the tale of a young girl Sawyer and her teenage sister Sadie Harper who begin to notice scary sinister events at their house. They try to explain to their father Will, a therapist, but he doesn't pay much attention to them. He is also dealing with the pain of recently losing his wife, the girls' mother. 

The terrifying supernatural entity was brought to their home by Will's patient, who sought help. The horrid creature feeds on the dismay of his targets.

The movie stars Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer, Sophie Thatcher as Sadie, and Chris Messina as Will. 

We also have David Dastmalchian, Marin Ireland, LisaGay Hamilton, Maddie Nichols, Mabel Tyler, Madison Hu, Lacey Dover, Adams Bellouis, Rose Bianca Grue and Daniel Hagen in supportive roles.

The Boogeyman is produced by Dan Cohen, Dan Levine and Shawn Levy, with Adam Kolbrenner, Bryan Woods, Emily Morris, John H. Starke, Robin Meisinger, Ryan Cunningham and Scott sitting at the executive production desk. 

Rob Savage directs the film with the screenplay penned by Bryan Woods, Mark Heyman and Scott Beck.

The Boogeyman is expected to make a cinematic release on June 2, 2023. 

It was initially slated for a straight-to-streaming release on Hulu, but its warm reception from screening tests made 20th Century Studios consider a big-screen debut.