Disney’s acquisition of Fox saw the Mouse House become the new owners of several properties that don’t exactly toe the party’s family-friendly line, but that hasn’t stopped six-time Emmy nominee Prey from being received as the best Predator movie ever, never mind two separate Alien projects being in the works concurrently. Stephen King doesn’t exactly sound like ideal fodder for Mickey, either, but The Boogeyman scored a huge win from being swallowed by its corporate overlords.
Initially revealed as a straight-to-streaming release that would play exclusively on Hulu, subsidiary 20th Century Studios ended up bumping the literary adaptation to a full-blown theatrical rollout, where it would bring in over $80 million. King thought it was too scary for the small screen, and audiences clearly agreed after Rob Savage’s expansion of the titular short story drew a warm response from critics and crowds.
Ironically, The Boogeyman has finally migrated to on-demand without arriving on Hulu or Disney Plus as of yet, where it’s ended up as one of the biggest hits on both iTunes and Google Play, per FlixPatrol. Technically fun for all the family (albeit with parental approval) as a PG-13 exercise in terror and trauma, Savage proved that appealing to a wider audience doesn’t necessarily mean the shackles have to stay on.
It’s doesn’t quite rank among the top tier of King-to-screen works, but it’s a million miles away from being the worst, and it’s clear that Savage has no intentions of giving up his spot as one of horror’s most promising young filmmakers.
