Today I am going to explain and recap a recently released movie called The Boogetman. The film is based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. It is directed by Rob Savage, who is known for his found footage horror films such as Host and Dashcam. I have recapped Dashcam on this channel, if you have not seen it then do check it out. The link is in the description.
The movie starts at night, we see an entity slowly moving toward a baby by the name of Annie who is in her cradle. Annie was crying and it seemed no one was hearing her. The entity mimics her dad's voice and kills her. Here we are shown Annie's family. Next, after some months we see another house and another family where there were three members. William Harper a psychiatrist, his teenage daughter Sadie, and kid girl Sawyer. Will's wife had passed away recently in a car accident and the family had not fully recovered from its grief. It was evident from Sadie's behavior as she chose to wear her mom's clothes to school. Sadie's best friend Bethany and others try to help her cope but soon they end up ruining her precious dress. She runs from school.
Back at the house, we see a guy by the name of Luster Billings arriving for consultation with William. This guy was ill by the look of him and pleaded for help. At first, Willium refuses to take him in as he used to take patients only after proper background checks but here he makes an exception. Luster says he had three kids who died one after another in a short time under mysterious circumstances. Everyone believes I killed them but the truth is I didn't. There was something that haunted my kids, it tormented them, I only glimpsed at it once. He hands over a drawing of that entity drawn by one of the kids which shocks Willium. The baby Annie was this man's daughter and there was definitely an entity.
William doesn't buy his confession and makes an excuse to call 911. As he was on the call Luster disappeared. Sadie was back at the house cleaning her dress when she heard some noise from her mom's art studio. At its door, she accidentally slips on a red liquid which she thought was blood. But it turned out to be a paint flowing out as someone or something had thrashed the room. Sadie was scared like to see this and there was still a noise coming from a closet. She slowly picks up a knife and enters the closet.
It was dark and seemed fine. Just then Willium ran from behind and caught her which freaks her out. These two then see Luster's body hanging at the back of the door. They assume he must have committed suicide. William informs the police and Sadie too tells them about the noise she heard. These three guys were consulting Dr. Weller for therapy. Especially Sawyer who was too afraid of the dark and used to sleep with a lighting ball. After this incident, she was scared even more. At night she woke up hearing the sound of the closet door opening on its own and felt something was under her bed. When she bent over to check it, a monster-like figure scared her.
Sadie was watching some seance videos to try and learn to contact her mom's spirit as she was missing her dearly. Just then Sawyer comes there and tells her what had happened but Sadie ignores it as a kid's nightmare. Sawyer's was bleeding from her shaky baby teeth which needed removal. Sadie ties a thread to it and to the door to forcefully remove it. She was supposed to count to three to push the door but the door gets slammed on its after count two. This confuses Sadie as she doesn't push the door. Sawyer was crying from pain as it was painful. Sadie puts her to bed alongside her by singing her a lullaby. After these two are in deep sleep we hear the same lullaby echoing in the room and someone drags Sawyer's teeth away.
The next day Harper's family visits their therapist Dr Weller who decides to conduct an exercise to remove dark fobia from Sawyer's mind. She darkens the room and slowly flashes the red light to reassure. Sawyer is horrified during this as she sees a monster crawling across the wall. She wets her pants in horror. During William's session, Dr. Weller tells him about the need for the joint family session but he refuses it.
He too finds it hard to cope with grief. At night Sadie found Willium's session audio record with Luster where he was clearly fighting with someone at the end. At the time of death, he had the recording on him as if to tell Willium he was right. Sadie finds his diary and when she scribbles over it with a pencil, she sees the same monster that has been haunting her sister. On the other side, Sawyer comes out to the corridor after hearing Sadie's voice. the monster was haunting her by mimicking Sadi's voice. Later Sawyer identifies the monster from the drawing.
The next morning Sadie asks Bethany to accompany her to Luster's house which seems abandoned. The house looked like a haunted place with garbage everywhere. Sadie heard some noises again here and when she checked the upper floor was filled with candles, lights, and a Polaroid camera. Just then Luster's wife Rita shows up with a shotgun. Sadie tells her the whole story and asks her about the monster. Rita says her daughters used to call it the boogeyman and like all others at first I too didn't believe it. But it haunted them, chased them, tormented them, and finally killed them.
It mimics the voice of its victims, it preys on weak people who have suffered from trauma. It lives in the dark and fears the fire. According to Rita, the boogeyman has now leached itself to her and Sawyer and will follow them wherever they go. It's an ancient creature and only those who suffered from it know it. Just then Rita tells Sadie not to move as the boogeyman is right beside her. She shoots at him which spooks Sadie. She runs from there like and thinks of Rita as a crazy bitch.
At the house, Sawyer asks what happened, did you see the monster? Sadie in anger and a rude way tells her that there are no monsters. William was throwing away all the items belonging to his wife which Sadie objects. After a fight, she takes them to the basement and tries some weird Seance shift. She lights a lighter and asks her mom's spirit to bend the light to the left. Light doesn't bend but the monster starts singing the lullaby in her mom's voice. This spooks Sadie.
At school, Bethany suggests the idea of a party at Sadie's house so that she could feel normal. Sadie agrees and makes arrangements. All these girls wanted drinks but it was not available. Sadie had found some weed in her mom's items which she passed on to them. As soon as she tries it for the first time, she starts to cough continuously. Later omits the same thread with Sawyer's tooth. All this was a shock to her as she didn't understand what was happening. Next, these girls insist on checking the closet where Luster had hanged himself. As Sadie shows them, one of the girls pushes her inside and locks her in. She calls it exposure therapy. Sadie bangs on the door but it gets stuck. Here the monster attacks Sadie in the dark and for the first time she sees it. After a few minutes, Bethany somehow opens the door and Sadie slaps that girl.
Sawyer was playing a video game on TV when the monster started haunting her. This time it threw her to the TV and injured her. Sadie and William took her to the hospital where Sadie assured Sawyer that she would get rid of it. Later she gets a call from Rita who says she has a plan to kill the monster. She asks Sadie to come to her place. When Sadie goes there, the house is full of candles and traps. Rita wanted to trap it hence Sadie's presence was needed. She forcefully ties Sadie to a poll and waits with a gun. When the monster gets trapped she fires at it. Sadly the monster doesn't die and it attacks Rita. Sadie unties herself and tries to escape it but the monster follows her. She somehow escaped from there by focusing the light on it.
Sadie calls William to turn on all the lights of the house but she faces network issues. She runs back home and manages to find Sawyer in a closet. This smart kid had covered herself with Christmas lights to save herself. But her dad William was down in the basement to do something hence kids go down there with a stick. In the basement, The monster starts to stalk these guys and Sawyer sprays a pepper spray. Later the monster knocks down Sadie and starts to suck the life force out of her. William finally sees the monster and stabs at it from behind repeatedly. Sadie lights her mom's lighter and with Sawyer's spray she throws the flames at it. Finally, Sawyer sprinkles some gasoline onto it. Covered in fire the monster starts to burn with the whole basement. These three escape from there saying goodbye to their mom as her belongings will perish in fire.
Next, we see Harpers together with Dr. Weller where this whole incident brought them together. They seemed to have come over their grief and were ready to move ahead. When Sadie was about to walk out she heard Dr. Wller's voice calling her. When she went back to check on it, the voice was coming from a closet. Dr. Waller was at the other end and asked her why she was still there. Meaning, that the monster has not died it simply leached onto Dr. Waller. With this, the movie ends. The Boogeyman preys on the weak and vulnerable hence Harpers were easy victims. Here the movie highlights the issue of grief and trauma from the angle of the monster. Emotionally Sawyer was the weakest among the three and was missing her mom the most.
This was symbolized by the fact that the monster made her the first victim and haunted her the most. The monster's effect on Sadie was at best medium as she was coping with her grief and trauma in some way like wearing her mom's dress, keeping her items, or seance. William was most stable and being a psychiatrist knew how to deal with grief to some degree hence the monster never leached onto him at first. It was only when Sadie was hospitalized, that William's wound got triggered. In the end, these three were able to come together and manage to burn the monster. This symbolizes that to move forward in life one needs family support.
One must take help and help others then life will be beautiful. Sadie again sensed the presence of the monster at Dr. Weller's office which may mean the trauma is still there. They may not have fully over it. They need to work on it. The ending of The Boogeyman is open to interpretation, and there is no right or wrong answer. It is up to the viewer to decide what the ending means to them. Hope you liked this video. Please subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching, take care.
