Stephen King’s The Boogeyman will scare audiences at Hulu

By Blair Marnell January 31, 2022

Nearly fifty years after it was first published, Stephen King’s short story The Boogeyman is finally being adapted as a live-action film. Deadline is reporting that The Boogeyman is going forward as a Hulu original movie produced by Disney’s 20th Century Studios division. Additionally, Sophie Thatcher has been cast in one of the film’s leading roles.

King first published The Boogeyman in 1973 in Cavalier magazine before collecting it with other short stories in 1978’s Night Shift anthology. In the original story, a man named Lester Billings speaks with his psychiatrist, Dr. Harper, about the brutal murders of his children at the hands of a monster they called “Boogeyman.” The film’s story will follow a teenage girl and her brother who are grieving the death of their mother. However, the children are also haunted “by a sadistic presence in their house,” and they are desperately trying to get their emotionally numb father to recognize the threat before it claims all of their lives.

Sophie Thatcher in Showtime's Yellowjackets. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Thatcher is one of the breakout stars of Showtime’s newest hit, Yellowjackets. In the series, Thatcher plays Natalie, a role she shares with Juliette Lewis in the present-day sequences. Thatcher also has a supporting role in Disney+’s Star Wars original series The Book of Boba Fett as Drash, the leader of a teenage gang of cyborgs.

Deadline is also reporting that Chris Messina will co-star in The Boogeyman as well. Messina’s previous credits include HBO’s Sharp Objects, The Sinner season 3, Six Feet Under, Damages, The Newsroom, and The Mindy Project. Messina and Thatcher’s specific roles in The Boogeyman weren’t disclosed, but presumably, they will portray the father and daughter in this story.

Rob Savage will direct The Boogeyman from a script by Mark Heyman. Production is expected to begin in March.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…

Entertainment

John Lee Hancock on directing Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and the enduring appeal of Stephen King

John Lee Hancock directs two actors in Mr. Harrigan's Phone.

There's a good chance you've seen a film by John Lee Hancock. The veteran writer/director has been behind some of the most critically acclaimed studio movies of the last three decades. He wrote the Clint Eastwood movies A Perfect World in 1993 and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1997. Later, he directed the baseball movie The Rookie in 2002, the 2004 western The Alamo, the Oscar-nominated 2009 drama The Blind Side, and, most recently, the 2021 thriller The Little Things with Denzel Washington and Jared Leto.

With Mr. Harrigan's Phone on Netflix, Hancock finally gets to direct a proper horror film. In a conversation with Digital Trends, the director talks about his interest in adapting Stephen King, working with lead star Jaeden Martell, and how the film prioritizes the central relationship between Mr. Harrigan and Craig over cheap thrills.

Entertainment

Jaeden Martell on Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, Stephen King, and the horrors of technology

mr harrigans phone jaeden martell interview 2

Jaeden Martell is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. As young Bill Denbrough in 2017's It and 2019's It: Chapter Two, Martell, along with a cast of talented young actors such as Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer of Shazam!, battled the horrors of suburbia, puberty, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Martell is back in King's haunted Maine stomping grounds with Mr. Harrigan's Phone on Netflix. Co-starring Donald Sutherland, the film focuses on the relationship between Sutherland's reclusive Mr. Harrigan and Martell's shy, mournful teenager, Craig, and what happens when Mr. Harrington keeps calling his young friend even after he dies. In a conversation with Digital Trends, Martell discusses the film's many themes, how it's not just a horror film, and what other Stephen King film adaptation he would like to star in.

Entertainment

5 underrated Stephen King movies you need to watch

Carla Gugino glances to the side in Gerald's Game.

It’s officially October, which means that spooky movie season is finally upon us. No October would be complete, either, without the release of a new Stephen King adaptation. Fortunately, Netflix's adaptation of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, which is based on King’s novella of the same name, is set to fill that annual spot this year.

As all horror fans will know, almost no author’s work has been adapted into as many films and TV shows over the years as Stephen King’s. However, while a great number of the King adaptations that Hollywood has released have received acclaim and widespread attention, many of them have also been forgotten or lost to time.