The Stephen King train continued powering forward last weekend with the release of The Boogeyman, the hair-raising Rob Savage feature based on the acclaimed author’s short story of the same name.
It may not be quite as scary as having to go up against Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Little Mermaid at the box office, but the film’s emotionally weighty ethos and electrifyingly tense atmosphere make for one of the better King adaptations we’ve seen in a while.
Speaking of adaptations, it wouldn’t be 2023 if the idea of a sequel weren’t being tossed around; in this day and age, IP is king, after all. In a recent interview with ComicBook, Savage gleefully alluded to the possibility of a follow-up, suggesting that he has the perfect idea for what could come next for the Harper family.
“I’m really praying that this movie plays well enough to get a sequel because we’ve got an incredible idea for a sequel, me and the team, and Mark Heyman who wrote this one. I think you’d have to include this cast of characters, they’re so kind of fundamental to the character and the personality of this movie.”
He would go on to claim that while The Boogeyman characters would be the perfect conduits to tell this story with, it’s one that would nevertheless be able to stand on its own two feet.
“That being said, it kind of comes at the horror in a different way. It feels like its own thing. And it’s the kind of horror movie that, even if it wasn’t a sequel, it would be something I’d be so excited to do, and a story I’d really love to tell. But to make it as a sequel to this movie, in the world of Boogeyman, would be a dream. So I hope this movie doesn’t flop so I can come make that.”
The sequel dreams don’t stop at Savage, though; in another recent interview with The Direct, Vivien Lyra Blair hoped for more stories about the Harpers to be told post-Boogeyman, even if their most recent plight will be hard to top.
“I think it’s gonna be hard to kind of recover from that, and I think it could definitely go some different directions on what could happen next. But I really hope that we get to do it, and I really hope that we get to see how the Harpers do after this experience and The Boogeyman comes back.”
Boogeyman or no Boogeyman, it sounds like Savage is dead set on bringing this new story to life one way or another, and if it happens that his latest film doesn’t bring in enough dough to warrant a follow-up, we hope he ends up pursuing the project anyway, perhaps with Blair in tow.
The Boogeyman is now playing in theaters.
