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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 445698" data-attributes="member: 23">The Boogeyman (2023) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scifinow.co.uk%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F04%2FFt7piyfX0AAYmX0.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=48052fc997fd32a18c69cdb30f7fa71fc3cf8e43af4f77a26ae93fad7ced7ba0&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 630px" />This one had gone under my radar. Last night - scrolling through films on iPlayer - may have been the first I’d seen or heard of it. Going into a film without expectation is always a good thing, and the only expectation here came from seeing that it was an adaption of a Stephen King story.While I only really know King’s greatest hits, this certainly feels like familiar territory. There are the bulling peers (the girls here aren’t as nasty as the bullies in, say It or Christine or even Carrie. They’re just standard teenage girls who rely on bullying and social exclusion to keep their own insecurities in check. Which makes them more real and arguably more disturbing than the more violent and extreme bullies in the projects). There are the long shadowy corridors and hallways, with threat potentially lurking around each corner but this one brings that element into the home rather than the more commercial settings of something like The Shining or 1408).Most of all, there is the Big Bad that only the children can see, which is most familiar from It.I’m not sure if the pre-film tragedy is a King thing, but I liked its presence here, with the family still processing the loss of the main characters’ mother or wife. It was written and played for truth and added substance.Performances were consistently good. The only characters I didn’t like were the ones I was supposed not to like. All seemed unfamiliar to me at the time, though I’ve no realised I’d previously watched Sophie Thatcher in Heretic.It was a very promising story, and the execution was nice. There were a few little jump scares, and it also worked on a psychological level, tapping into that long-forgotten childhood thought of the creepy things that lurk in shadows of the most familiar environments when darkness makes them less familiar. There were some moments I found myself watching from between my fingers.Unfortunately - and also in common with It - once the monster was seen, it lost all its power. Nothing is ever going to get into one’s head and disturb as much as the unseen, with just enough information to get the imagination firing. A computer-generated clay monster is just never going to impact.The story was great. If the ending had been as strong as the build-up, it would be a top-notch film. As it is, it’s already starting to dim in my memory some fifteen hours later.All the same, going to bed last night I completely closed the door to the walk-in wardrobe which faces my bed. Just to be sure.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?