While the boogeyman is mostly known for its elusive qualities, a handful of horror movies have attempted to bring the monster to life onscreen. The boogeyman haunts the history of screen horror. In 1978’s classic slasher Halloween, Dr. Loomis calls Michael Myers the boogeyman to contextualize the implacable, unstoppable force of evil. Throughout the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Wes Craven’s inspired creation Freddy Krueger is repeatedly compared to the mythical childhood menace, as viewers are warned not to go to sleep lest they fall victim to Freddy’s machinations. However, the boogeyman himself appears in precious few movies.
The childhood nightmare rarely makes an appearance onscreen, but a few movies have managed this feat over the years. While 2023’s Stephen King adaptation The Boogeymanwas the most recent movie to tackle the urban legend, there is a range of earlier efforts that tried to do justice to the monster imagined by innumerable children over the decades. These range from an unconvincing CGI demon with a detachable jaw to a creepy monster known as the Tooth Fairy, to a singing villain with a seductive baritone. While these versions of the boogeyman couldn’t be more varied, few of them are likely to leave viewers checking their closets before bedtime.
9 Cameron’s Closet (1989)
In this underrated ‘80s chiller, the boogeyman is a demon powered by thought
Cameron’s Closet tells the story of the eponymous child, Cameron, who is sent to live with his mother when his father dies in a bizarre accident. Unfortunately for both of them, Cameron’s father was experimenting with his son’s psychokinetic abilities for years and created a link between the boy and an ancient Mayan demon. This demon takes up residence in Cameron’s closet, causing all manner of gruesome deaths for anyone who comes close to the child. A red-eyed, neckless monster, the boogeyman of Cameron’s Closet looks like a fairly typical ‘80s movie demon.
8 A Nightmare Before Christmas (1994)
This festive classic turned the boogeyman into a singing, dancing menace
While A Nightmare Before Christmas’s sequel might introduce a new bad guy, the smooth-talking villain Oogie Boogie is the movie’s main antagonist for most of its runtime. Easily the most unusual screen version of the boogeyman, Oogie Boogie appears to be a sentient burlap sack filled with bugs. He might not be as murderous as some of the other boogeymen seen in horror movies, but he does kidnap Santa Claus and almost kills him before Jack arrives to save the day. As such, the character could hardly be written off as harmless.
7 The Boogey Man (1980)
This strange slasher portrayed the boogeyman as a vengeful ghost
Director Ulli Lommel’s supernatural horror movie The Boogey Man might be the first movie to use the infamous monster in its title but, ironically, the boogeyman featured in the movie is far from a traditional interpretation of the monster. When two siblings kill their mother’s boyfriend, they are scarred for life by their actions. Years later, their mother dies, and the duo is haunted by the ghost of her boyfriend who was trapped in a mirror until her passing. This bizarre plot scarcely involves a traditional boogeyman, although the two children do face a horror from their childhood that returns to haunt them in their bedrooms at night.
6 Under the Bed (2012)
This 2012 horror movie made the boogeyman a genuinely creepy monster
Before he took over Stallone’s Escape Plan franchise in 2018, director Steven C Miller helmed the indie horror Under the Bed. One of the most straightforward boogeyman movies listed here, Under the Bed tells the story of two siblings who must defeat a monster that lives under their childhood bed and is repelled by bright light. While the storyline is similar to 2005’s Boogeyman, this movie’s white-skinned, wide-eyed monster kills the mother of Under the Bed’s heroes while Boogeyman’s main character loses his father to the ghoul.
5 Monster in the Closet (1987)
This horror-comedy’s version of the boogeyman was a lot more light-hearted
In 1987’s Monster in the Closet, the boogeyman is revealed to be a classic movie monster complete with a rubber suit costume and a ridiculous weakness. In this Troma release, the monster requires closets to live, and, naturally, the only way to defeat the boogeyman is to destroy every closet on earth. This goofy horror-comedy offers a pretty fun spin on the monster myth, and the screen debut of an extremely young Paul Walker as one of its kid heroes.
4 Sinister (2012)
Sinister’s Bughuul is the source of the world’s boogeyman myths
While Sinister 2’s ending explained the Bughuul mythos further, in the original movie, the monster is a stand-in for the boogeyman. He gains his powers through children believing in him, takes advantage of adults not believing in his existence, and is even explicitly compared to the boogeyman by a demonology expert. Bughuul is an oddly formal movie monster, sporting a suit alongside long, dark hair and a bizarre face that looks somewhat like a Rorschach test.
3 Darkness Falls (2003)
Technically the villain of Darkness Falls is actually a boogeywoman
2001’s Darkness Falls never technically admits that the “Tooth Fairy” haunting the titular town is a boogeyman, perhaps because she is female. However, the ghost of Matilda Dixon still certainly qualifies. She hunts children since the townspeople accused her of killing them, she can be defeated by bright light, and her existence is questioned by the adult characters until it is almost too late. In terms of appearance, Matilda is heavily scarred and wears a porcelain mask as a result.
2 Boogeyman (2005)
The goofy monster of the ‘00s horror is a CGI-assisted mess
2005’s Boogeyman is one of the only movies to unabashedly focus on the eponymous monster. Unfortunately, it is also not particularly scary and comically self-serious. While 2023’s The Boogeyman turned Stephen King’s version of the villain into a wild, lethally dangerous animal, 2005’s Boogeyman is clearly a humanoid threat. He is a tall, gaunt, bald figure with empty eyes and a long trench coat. In an audacious, unintentionally funny twist, the ending reveals that the boogeyman’s appearance is composed of various items found around the hero’s childhood bedroom.
1 The Boogeyman (2023)
Stephen King’s take on the boogeyman is a more traditional movie monster
Director Rob Savage’s take on the boogeyman may be the definitive version of the monster. A lithe, feral beast, the boogeyman of this dark horror appears to feed off the grief and heartbreak of the movie’s young heroes. Unlike most of the monsters on this list, it doesn’t appear to be sentient or capable of communication, acting more like an animal than a human villain. Despite this, The Boogeyman’s monster is still a creepy sight, and it remains the horror genre’s best attempt to bring the being to life onscreen.
