What The Boogeyman Is & Why It Looks Like That (2024)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Boogeyman.

With its distinct look and eerie backstory, The Boogeyman introduces a new face of terror with its titular monster. Based on a short story of the same name from Stephen King's Night Shift anthology, the horror film follows a family struggling to get over a tragic loss just as another traumatic event plunges them deeper into the throes of grief. Therapist Will (Chris Messina) and his two daughters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are just one month removed from the sudden loss of their mother when a troubled patient named Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), accused of murdering his three young children, dies violently during a therapy session.

In one of the biggest changes to Stephen King's book, Billings' body is carted away, and the real story begins with the evil entity that remains behind, one that Billings suspected was the true perpetrator of his family's murders. Entering the house from Sawyer's closet, it begins to prey on the youngest daughter first, but Sadie isn't immune to its power, and soon finds herself plagued by nightmares and visions of it lurking around her house. When it finally comes for Will, the family has to face their deepest fears to confront The Boogeyman and destroy its wicked presence once and for all.

What The Boogeyman Really Is In The Stephen King Movie

While the children attacked by the monster refer to it as The Boogeyman, based on the urban legend involving a monster lurking in the depths of their closets, it's not a figment of their imagination. From the testimony of Lester and Rita Billings, the Boogeyman is a "shadow monster" that has ancient and deep roots in the consciousness of early humans, targeting anyone who have recently suffered a great loss. As Lester explains in his initial therapy session, he lost his first child to SIDS, and then his remaining two children within a year, implying that the collective grief of the family was enough to invite The Boogeyman in.

Targeting children was a surefire way for The Boogeyman to operate without arousing suspicion, as things attributed to children's active imaginations are often dismissed. Once it attached itself to one family, it would work its way through every member, feeding on their despair by draining the life force from their bodies before eventually moving on. When Lester Billings brought his pain and suffering to Will's office one fateful day, it sensed the pain Will was experiencing after the death of his wife and latched on once it was done with Lester.

Why The Boogeyman Looks Like A Spider Creature

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Although mostly blanketed in darkness except for its two glowing eyes, The Boogeyman resembles a spider creature when it's finally revealed by a light source. Not only do spiders evoke a frightening form with their long legs and multiple limbs, they also move quickly and unpredictably after their prey. Spiders are fond of the dark, and prefer to dwell in cool moist places, and as an eldritch creature from ancient times that fear light, The Boogeyman developed into something most humans associate with a primordial fear.

Spiders also have extensive webs to ensnare victims, which they often wrap up and save for a later meal while they slowly dissolve from the inside out. This explains why once firmly entrenched in a household, The Boogeyman's "web" begins to take over in a vast array of dark tendrils, and it keeps its food supply well stocked by choosing to prolong the grief and fear of its victims. The arms that grow out of its mouth and reach for its victims are not filled with sharp talons or claws but reflect what they most need, a comforting embrace, which they use to suck the life from them.

How The Boogeyman Chooses Its Victims

The Boogeyman chooses its victims by targeting anyone experiencing pronounced grief and loss, first in the case of Lester and Rita Billings and the loss of their first child, and then with Will Harper and his children after the loss of their mother. The longer they remain engulfed by their pain and suffering, the easier it is for The Boogeyman to torment them and gain access to a food source. It's both a corporeal entity and a weighted presence that follows sufferers like a heavy cloud wherever they go, such as when Lester brought it with him to Will's office.

The Boogeyman can count on parents to find logical reasons for its sudden infiltration, while children's imagination makes them receptive to its presence. By Will choosing to disengage with his children and never talk about his wife's death, he allowed The Boogeyman to work its way into his family's life. In some ways, he was its next victim after meeting with Lester, but his mind wouldn't accept the truth staring him in the face; the monster, like his wife's passing, was real, not imaginary, and the only way to defeat it was to accept it.

Why Fire Is The Boogeyman's Only Weakness

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While investigating the Billings house, Sadie encounters a troubled Rita Billings who lives paranoid and alone while surrounded by candles she keeps perpetually lit. As she explains to Sadie, humankind first used fire to keep what lurked in the darkness at bay, so creatures like The Boogeyman couldn't gain purchase while early humans slept in their caves. Fire became the enemy of The Boogeyman and in later eras, electric light, which is why Sadie and Sawyer begin using Christmas tree lights and other sources of illumination to protect themselves.

To connect with her deceased mother, Sadie uses the flame from a lit candle or lighter to communicate, with the flame bending to the left whenever her mother's spirit is present. This healing quest ends up saving her family, as the light from her mother's memory ends up being used to defeat The Boogeyman in the Harper's basem*nt. While Will tried to purge the memory of his wife without processing his feelings from her passing, Sadie had been trying to work through her trauma, which is ultimately why by the end of The Boogeyman she succeeds in honoring her mother's memory and destroying the source of her torment.

The Boogeyman monster is an allegory for grief and how, if not handled correctly, it can rip through and destroy families. Because Will Harper won't acknowledge his family's suffering and refuses to discuss his wife's death, he makes space for The Boogeyman to enter his children's bedrooms at night. There are several times when Sadie and Sawyer try to reach their father and gain comfort and understanding from him but, despite being a therapist, he can't be vulnerable with them and let them into his emotional pain, allowing something else to occupy it instead, with murderous results.

RELATED: It's no surprise that in The Boogeyman, the creature echoes the voices of loved ones back to the grief-stricken, taunting them with the promise of seeing those they've lost. Nor is it strange for it to have hands for teeth or arms that reach out from a jaw it breaks open to embrace them - it will do whatever it takes to wrap up its victims in the solace they want most. They only realize too late that The Boogeyman uses the very things that grieving families need to pull each other out of their grief against them.