Upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman will continue a promising genre trend for horror movies in 2023. The horror genre is undergoing something of a renaissance. While the genre was doing relatively well before the COVID-19 pandemic, the most consistent winner at the box office since cinemas reopened worldwide has been horror. Many of 2022’s biggest sleeper hits were within the horror realm, while new installments in classic slasher franchises like Scream and Halloween managed to become blockbuster successes.
This promising trend continues with director Rob Savage’s upcoming adaptation of The Boogeyman by Stephen King. Set to arrive in June 2023, The Boogeyman is a loose adaptation of King’s short story of the same name from the author’s debut collection Night Shift. The story sees a psychiatrist’s patient tell the grim tale of his encounters with the titular monster, and Savage’s adaptation will expand this truncated plot to a feature-length story. The Boogeyman will see Chris Messina star as a psychiatrist and father whose children are plagued by visions of the eponymous Boogeyman after a creepy encounter with a disturbed patient.
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Why Stephen King’s The Boogeyman Went From Streaming to Cinemas
Thanks to great responses in test screenings, The Boogeyman is coming to theaters instead of going straight to streaming. Much like upcoming Evil Dead movie Evil Dead Rise, this Stephen King movie adaptation was originally set to premiere via Hulu, but positive test audience responses led the studio to upgrade its release to a theatrical debut. This is great news for both Savage’s Stephen King adaptation specifically and horror movies more broadly, as it proves studios are gaining trust in the financial potential of the horror genre. As the likes of Barbarian and Terrifier 2 proved in 2022, the horror genre can make indie movies into major hits.
Like The Boogeyman and Evil Dead Rise, Barbarian was also set to debut on the streaming service Hulu. Positive test screenings once again resulted in a theatrical debut, and Barbarian went on to gross over $45 million on a budget of only $4 million. Like many movies in the horror genre, Barbarian would have been wasted on a straight to streaming release thanks to the movie’s many effective jump scares. Horror movies – particularly those with a predilection toward sudden shocks – benefit from the communal viewing experience of a theater release, justifying the decision to grant The Boogeyman a theatrical run.
Why This Theatrical Horror Trend Is Good News
While it is great news for Stephen King fans that The Boogeyman will arrive in theaters, this also bodes well for the horror genre as a whole. Terrifier 2’s theater run was extended due to audience demand, with the micro-budget slasher, produced for only $250,000, eventually earning over $10 million. This, along with Barbarian’s success and the new release plan for Evil Dead Rise, shows that horror can make a killing at the box office if – like The Boogeyman – the project receives the right distribution.
As long as horror movies in 2023 keep justifying the faith movie studios place in them, those studios will keep giving the genre a theatrical platform. 2023 has already fared well in this regard, with M3GAN proving wildly popular at the box office. The onus is now on The Boogeyman to continue horror’s frighteningly good fortune in the modern cinematic landscape.
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