Director Rob Savage made a name for himself with Shudder’s “Host,” a wickedly smart take on found-footage horror filmed and released during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Set during a Zoom séance gone awry, the film contains more jolts in its brief 60-minute runtime than most horror franchises do across several films. Savage’s follow-up, “Dashcam,” was a mixed bag, telling a stylish yet problematic possession tale. With “The Boogeyman,” however, Savage is back on top, proving himself one of the genre’s most exciting new voices.
In order to expand on King’s source material, Savage borrows the context from the short story, but considerably reworks the approach. Here, Sophie Thatcher’s Sadie Harper tries to convince her blithely oblivious father (Chris Messina) that a supernatural being has targeted her and her sister, Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair). Savage and co-writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the duo behind “A Quiet Place”) know how to craft a hair-raising jump; Savage’s Boogeyman slithers out of closets, hides in dark corners, and, of course, lurks under beds, illuminated only by poor Sawyer’s LED ball lamp. It’s scary in the most primal sense, making the film a back-to-basics summer shocker that more than delivers on the promise of King’s name.