The Boogeyman Director Explains How They Created The Mythical Monster (Exclusive)

The Boogeyman hit theaters everywhere today, and it's an adaptation of Stephen King's short story of the same name. The new horror film was directed by Rob Savage, who previously helmed Dashcam. The original story was first published in a 1973 issue of Cavalier before being collected in King's Night Shift anthology in 1978. Of course, the mythical "Boogeyman" has been a part of folklore since the 16th century, but it's never had a specific look. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Savage about his new film, and we asked about the design behind the monster and how they brought it to life. 

"Yeah, when I came on board, nobody had any ideas," Savage revealed. "It was just this kind of amorphous thing. And so I kind of came up with my conception of the creature, which was I think actually before I came on, and kind of reworked the movie into what it became. Everyone was thinking more in terms of the last Boogeyman movie from 2005 where it's a tall kind of Babadook-y looking thing. And I really wanted to make this more of a creature feature, and for this to feel like something more kind of ferocious, and feral and inhuman."

Savage continued, "And the idea was to basically take this idea of the boogeyman and say, 'Okay, well. The boogeyman is just the name that we give it as scared children. This thing is actually way more ancient. This is the kind of primordial beast that's been around as long as there's darkness, and we've got to kind of consider it,' it's like a Lovecraftian, old god. This thing has just existed in the darkness, since time began."

"And part of the look that we came up with came from the description in the short story, and part of it, there's a kind of bit that happens at the end, this kind of weird Lovecraftian and body horror moment that happens, when the creature finally pins Sadie down," Savage explained. "That again is an homage to the short story, but also trying to leave the audience with this unknown dimension to the creature. Obviously, this is a PG-13 studio horror movie, you're going to see the monster at the end. The family's going to fight it. And I wanted there to be a moment that was just so kind of, 'What the f*ck,' that opened up a whole new question about this creature, and how much you're really seeing and understanding of it. Which again, I can't believe we got away with, in PG-13. But somehow, miraculously, we did."

Savage added the creature's design, "Well, it's all done in the computer, ultimately. We actually 3D printed the Boogeyman head which, then we kind of slathered in jelly, and lit it to make it look... Just to have a reference, so I could then show the VFX team and say, 'Look, that's what a real Boogey head looks like, in that environment, with all the stuff glistening.' So we had that on a stick, like a pantomime horse, and I would just run at the actors making noises, with this Boogeyman head. And sometimes we had a guy in suits, with the little baubles on, whenever we needed him to wrestle with the actors, or knock stuff over. We had that kind of practical element."

Who Stars in The Boogeyman?

The Boogeyman stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets), Chris Messina (Air), Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Marin Ireland (The Umbrella Academy), Madison Hu (Bizaardvark), LisaGay Hamilton (Vice), and David Dastmalchian (Boston Strangler). Savage, fresh off his Shudder hit Host, directs the film from a screenplay by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place) and Mark Heyman (Black Swan) and a screen story by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods based upon the short story by Stephen King.

The Boogeyman is now playing in theaters. 

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