PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s no surprise that, after the success of the plethora of Stephen King adaptations last year, filmmakers would continue to create more films and TV series based on even more of the Master of Horror’s writings. Now we’re hearing from Deadline that 20th Century Fox has purchased the feature length film rights to King’s short story, The Boogeyman, much to the delight of horror fans everywhere.
To make this news even more exciting, we also found out that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the guys who helped John Krasinski pen A Quiet Place, will be co-writing the script for the film. This info is almost as thrilling to hear about as the movie itself. With Beck and Woods behind it, I feel confident that The Boogeyman will get the treatment that it deserves. As of this time, no cast has been announced, although we do know that Stranger Things’ Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen are producing. Beck and Woods will also be executively producing the film, along with Madhouse Entertainment’s Robyn Meisinger, Adam Kolbrenner and Ryan Cunningham.
As a Constant Reader since 1985, I can honestly say that The Boogeyman is one of my very favorite King stories. The entire tale takes place in a psychiatrist’s office as a man named Lester Billings confesses that he killed all three of his children. No, he never laid a hand on them, and the cause of death on the death certificates was always listed as crib death (what we now know as SIDS). But because of his own cowardice, something crept out of his children’s closets each night and scared them to death, and he let it happen. There’s a mind-blowing twist at the end that I never saw coming and, to this day, still gives me goosebumps.
Some interesting facts about the story itself… it’s one of King’s Dollar Baby Deals, which offers up-and-coming filmmakers the non-commercial and non-exclusive rights to create movie versions of his stories for the cost of $1. The Boogeyman was first published in 1973 in Cavalier magazine, and then went on to be included in 1978’s Night Shift, the author’s first collection of short stories.
Are you excited for some more Stephen King movie goodness? Have you read The Boogeyman? What King short would you like to see adapted next? Let us know in the comments!
