It appears a new film adaptation of Stephen King’s short story ‘The Boogeyman’ is still happening.
The project was originally set to be produced by Twentieth Century Fox and 21 Laps Entertainment but will instead be heading to Hulu, with Rob Savage (Host) now attached to direct.
‘The Boogeyman’ was first announced in 2018, with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods originally attached to write and direct the film. Little detail was revealed about the status of the film, until the writing team behind ‘A Quiet Place’, shared in an October 2020 interview with Comicbook.com that they had completed the script, even going so far as to add that King himself had read the script and given them his “blessing.” As far as the reason behind the delay, Beck identified that it was due to Disney’s recent purchase of Fox.
Along with Savage, Deadline has reported that Mark Heyman (Black Swan) has been hired on to develop a new script based on Beck and Woods’s original draft.
Also, according to Deadline, the official synopsis for this new adaption will tell the story of a “teenage girl and her little brother, who while still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, suddenly find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house, at the same time they must struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it’s too late.”
King’s short story ‘The Boogeyman’ was first published in March 1973 in an issue of Cavalier magazine, before eventually being re-released in 1978’s ‘Night Shift’.
‘The Boogeyman’ told the story of Lester Billings, who goes to see a psychiatrist, named Dr. Harper, about the murders of his three young children. He recalls the suspicious circumstances behind the death of his first two children, with the only connection between their deaths being the fact that both children had claimed to see a “Boogeyman” before they died. Along with the fact that both children’s closets doors were found slightly ajar the next morning.
In the story, Billings goes into further detail regarding the death of this third child, Andy. Telling Dr. Harper about the events of that night, and how he managed to catch a glimpse of the “Boogeyman” this time.
The story ends with an unexpected twist that only King could write.
This is not the first adaptation of King’s short story to be released. In 1982, directer Jeffrey C. Shiro released a twenty-eight-minute version of ‘The Boogeyman’, with his film staying true to the source material.
As more information on the project becomes available, Horror Facts will be sure to report it.
