(L-R): Sophie Thatcher as Sadie Harper and Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper in 20th Century Studios' THE BOOGEYMAN. Photo by Patti Perret. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Courtney Howard // Film Critic
In director Rob Savage’s THE BOOGEYMAN, the eponymous monster doesn’t just come for its victims at night. It appears wherever there’s darkness. And, unfortunately for the grief-stricken Harper family, specifically teen Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and tween Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), that deviously creepy creature is unleashed when a haunted Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) makes a surprise visit to seek counseling from their psychiatrist dad Will (Chris Messina).
At the film’s recent virtual press conference, we learned a lot more about the making of this harrowing horror film.
The Original Release Plan Pivoted
THE BOOGEYMAN was originally planned to be a streaming only title. It wasn’t until author Stephen King, on whose short story its based, saw the movie and weighed in critically on their take. Producer Dan Cohen said, “He became a huge champion of it. And was a key force behind this becoming what is now a theatrical release, which wasn’t the original design.” Producer Dan Levine added further context. “He sent an email saying, ‘It’s a real shame. I love this film. It’s a shame it’s not out in theaters.’ And we used that as a starting point for a conversation with the studio, who also loved the film, and now we’re gonna be on big screens.”
The Creature
Savage said, “The design was about creating something that you could glimpse just in the shadows. You could just see these kinda pinprick eyes staring out from the darkness. For most of the movie, we’re just allowing it to kind of fester in the audience’s head. When you finally see the creature, we came up with this kind of weird, messed-up design; whereby the creature kind of reveals itself to have dimensions beyond what we see. There’s still kind of room for people’s own nightmares projected onto our creature. And yet, we’ve got this horrific design which our team came up with which will hopefully create some new nightmares.”
Due mostly to time constraints, Savage chose CGI to make his monster. “I was pushing for practical for a lot of the movie. The thing that made me relent in the end is that we just couldn’t lock into our design for the creature until very late in the day. We went ‘round the houses on what this creature should look like and how best to represent the Boogeyman and even what his form looks like when you finally see him at the end. It kind of immediately became apparent that one, we wouldn’t have enough time to build a suit. And two, the things that we had to have this creature doing, practical would be very cumbersome. It would add onto our days. We shot 34 days, so we didn’t have a huge amount of time to be messing around with a practical suit. Although, that was definitely how I saw this originally. And it’s testament to our artist folks who were the VFX company who created our creature.”
Savage continued. “We had a Boogeyman head that we had 3D printed and slathered in KY jelly and lit by Eli Born, our incredible cinematographer. And we had that in every single scene, we had a shot like that that we could show the VFX people and say, ‘That’s what a real Boogeyman head looks like.’ It’s gotta look like that.”
They also used a creature performer for the actors to bounce off of. Chris Messina said, “This was a lot of fun because I had never really done, and I didn’t do a whole lot of it here, but some, green screen stuff. We had this great actor, Michael and he had this green jumpsuit on and he was remarkable. He would scare us and jump out at us and chase us. [It had] ping pong balls attached to it. And he was awesome.” Occasionally, the actors would work against a blank void. “Sometimes you were just acting into the abyss, into the darkness with Rob kind of guiding you. That’s why it helps to have someone that really knows the genre and that you trust in. It was apparent early on that Rob knew where we should go and if we listened and trusted him, we’d find the way.”
To psych herself up to be able to watch the movie she’s in, Savage and company gave Blair a practical Boogeyman head. Savage explained, “The first time that we showed Viv the movie, me and everyone at the VFX team, we didn’t want Viv to not be able to watch the movie. So, as prep, we gave her the Boogeyman head, which I think now sits in your bedroom.” Blair jumped in, stating, “It’s now wearing a bucket hat and a scarf in our living room.”
Bonding as The Harper Family
Unlike on a lot of film shoots, there was time for these actors to bond in advance of the shoot. Messina said, “We had rehearsals, and those rehearsals were about two weeks long, and we went to the aquarium, and we went bowling. We ate some food, and by the time we got to set, there was so much love and trust – and we had become a family.”
To get their sisterly bond down, Blair said there was one instance in particular that solidified the simulated familial experience. “I remember, there is this thing specifically where in the therapist office, which is now in the trailer. There was this little toy kitchen that a lot of kids would have and we were playing with it. And for some reason, I kept making it about avocado toast. We created a whole restaurant just around avocado toast.” Thatcher confirmed, “She gave me this bracelet today. It says avocado toast.”
Blair continued, “We keep giving each other gifts that are like avocado toast. We both gave each other socks. I gave her a bracelet and a stuffed animal today. It’s been kind of our little bond that keeps us close together, which is randomly avocado toast. And I don’t even really like avocado toast. It just randomly became a thing. It’s just a really sweet thing that we have together and it’s something that sisters would have, as well.”
Playing A Character Befitting of the (Stephen) King
Dastmalchian, whose character’s trauma marks the inciting incident for the Harpers, said he did feel a sense of pressure doing justice to King’s creation. “Such an immense amount of pressure, definitely, from the fact that you’re bringing a character to life from the imagination of the king. But also, because the place that Lester’s coming from is just one of those corners of the human experience that nobody really would care to ever spend time in. The challenge of even having the courage to be willing to go there was the first challenge for me. I didn’t feel like I had the capacity, probably, to embody Lester in a way that would do justice to the film that Rob was going to make. I grew up in a part of the country with a lot of the Lesters that existed in the short story and I wanted, and the way that the script reflected this, to bring what maybe Lester looked or moved like in a different time. ‘Cause that was probably written in the early-‘80s/ late-‘70s, to 2022, which is when we were shooting it. He has so much information to convey and you just need for the audience to relate to him and for him not be any kind of trope.”
He credits his director and co-star for guidance. “Rob was such a great guide on it. Chris, as soon as I sat down with him, the energy that started going between us was so powerful. I prepared, of course. I had a lot of thoughts and ideas going into this. But you show up and you just throw that stuff out and you try to just be present and listen.”
Dastmalchian relished being a part of this project. “It’s such a thrill to get to be with people you trust and you can throw yourselves off a cliff and know that they’re there to catch you and that they’re gonna protect you. Lester suffered. There’s mental anguish and spiritual anguish that all these characters are going through. And to go to that place, just for thrills and chills, it’s not really worth it to me. I feel like there’s something deeper in this story. Do I think that there’s maybe somebody hiding in my closet? No. Am I terrified that the things that I’ve struggled with in my life are always looming around the corner or under my bed or just down the hall and they could pop out at any second and take me over? Of course, I am. Don’t we all feel that way sometimes, right?”
Jump Scares
There are quite a few jump scares in THE BOOGEYMAN, but blessedly none of them are predictable and cheap. They’re all well-earned scares. Savage said, “I think jump scares get a lot of bad press. But great jump scares, there’s nothing better. And I think one has to earn the other. I think if you’ve got great underlying themes and the audience feels like you’ve invested in the characters and you’re actually trying to say something, it’s totally fine to have something burst out of a closet and scare the hell out of you. It’s like turning a valve, you gotta know when to release it and when to keep the tension.”
THE BOOGEYMAN opens in theaters on June 2.
