Stephen King, the legendary master of horror, strikes again. His influence has been felt far and wide in the entertainment industry, and now he’s made his mark on the upcoming movie, “The Boogeyman.” When the movie was being made, the plan was for it to be available only on Hulu. However, it was widely reported in January that the plan had changed and the movie would be shown in theaters. At the time, it was said that the move was made because of how well the test screenings went and how popular horror movies are, but it turns out that the source material’s author also influenced the decision.
Hulu is a great place to find some of the best horror movies ever, and here is the list of the best scary movies on Hulu to watch right now.
“The Boogeyman” is one of King’s most famous short stories, first published in 1973. The story centers around a man named Lester Billings, who is haunted by the memory of his children’s deaths, which he blames on the Boogeyman. The story has been adapted into various forms of media over the years, including an audiobook and a segment in the 1982 horror anthology film “Creepshow.”
This week, filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods were on the ReelBlend podcast to promote their new movie “65.” The hosts asked them about The Boogeyman (on which they are credited as screenwriters and producers). Sean O’Connell asked Woods what went on behind the scenes to get the movie from streaming. Woods told him the whole story from the beginning.
He told them, “We love the experience of going to the theater, and so when we first wrote Boogeyman, it was intended as a theatrical movie. And then, of course, the merger happened with Disney buying Fox, and it went through all this stuff, and then, when they green-lit the movie, it was clear, ‘this is going to Hulu,’ and we all had to, like sign an addendum to our contract to make that happen. And it was kind of disappointing ’cause we were like, ‘Man, horror is so fun. You’d love to see it with an audience and watch people.’
As Woods went on, he talked about how test audiences and Stephen King made 20th Century Studios executives change their minds about making The Boogeyman an exclusive to Hulu:
They started screening the movie once it was finished, and it really started playing through the roof, and it really played the audience like a piano. And it was also Stephen King himself who was kind of like advocating behind the scenes and basically saying like, ‘My feedback on the film is I don’t understand why it’s not in movie theaters.’ And so thank goodness 20th [Century Studios] turned around and decided to put out theaters.
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Stephen King’s work has been turned into movies and TV shows for 50 years, so he knows how to scare an audience properly. Luckily, The Boogeyman will be able to scare big crowds this summer. King has been pushing for the movie behind the scenes and in public, posting about it before the trailer came out in late January. And speaking of that, you can see the first look at the Boogeyman below:
If you see that trailer, you might recognize David Dastmalchian, who plays a key role in the movie. The movie version of The Boogeyman is very different from Stephen King’s short story, but Dastmalchian’s role as Lester Billings, the main character in the short story, is the direct link between the two.
Scott Beck talked about how he turned a Stephen King short story into a movie. He said that King’s original story needs more for a full-length movie. Said Beck, I’ll talk about it from the challenge of even adapting the short story, because it is a short story. It’s like 11 or 12 pages long, and it takes place in a psychiatrist’s office where a man, Lester Billings, walks in and he, you know, basically is saying, ‘The Boogeyman killed all three of my children.’ And the fun of this project was using that as a launching point, and then creating a story from whole cloth but that still would be the voice of Stephen King because it is Stephen King’s The Boogeyman.
The Boogeyman will not be about what happens to Lester Billings but rather about his psychiatrist, Chris Messina, and his two daughters, Sophie Thatcher, and Vivien Lyra Blair. Despite this, Scott Beck pointed out that Lester still has an important role.
The movie director said: David plays Lester Billings in the movie. We find Lester Billings to be a scary character. He gives it so much weight and realism that it makes for a scary portrayal. He is one of the actors we like best. People seem to think of him mostly as a character actor, but I think he could also be a leading man. As far as I know, he can do almost anything.
There are still a lot of secrets about The Boogeyman, which makes us even more excited for the movie to come out in theaters. On June 2, a horror tale will be coming to theaters near you.
“The Boogeyman” is the latest example of Stephen King’s influence in the entertainment industry. King has been scaring audiences for decades, from books to movies to TV shows, and he shows no signs of slowing down. And now, thanks to his influence, horror fans will get to experience it.
