Sophie Thatcher in The Boogeyman (20th Century Studios)

In The Boogeyman, psychiatrist Will Harper (Chris Messina) is good at helping his patients talk through their issues. Ironically, the exceptions are his teenage daughter Sadie (Yellowjackets’ Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), both still in mourning over their mother’s death. Grief and gloom certainly permeate the trio’s household, and Will barely seems willing to address their anguish, or even his own. Instead, he buries himself further in work.

Then this darkness manifests itself in a literal, terrifying way. A disheveled, paranoid man named Lester (David Dastmalchian) appears at Will’s house, begging for an appointment. He speaks of a supernatural creature that murdered his kids, one after the other following a similar tragedy, leaving Lester a shell of his former self. Lester calls it the “thing that comes for your kids when you’re not paying attention,” and soon this monster—eventually dubbed the Boogeyman—begins haunting Sadie and Sawyer. Stalking them from the darkness of their walls, beds, and hallways, forcing the sisters to deal with their grief and a nightmarish creature that won’t go their way.

Once again, Hollywood filmmakers try their hand at a Stephen King tale, in this case, adapting a 1973 short story while switching the focus from Lester and Dr. Harper’s conversations to the aforementioned children. Like most modern horror films, it touches upon themes of loss, family trauma, and mental health, often without much subtlety. There’s a familiar pattern to the story: Sadie doubts Sawyer’s warnings until she witnesses the Boogeyman herself, and Will proves mostly inept at recognizing its presence. It’s hardly the most original take on creature-feature content.

But in terms of atmosphere, director Rob Savage does a fairly good job making his limited sets (the Harper’s home, a high school, a therapist’s office) intimidating. If you’ve ever feared an open closet at night or monsters under the bed, Savage’s direction will recall some unnerving memories. That we never truly see the creature’s body for most of the 99-minute running time—only faint outlines of its eyes, jagged teeth, and spiny legs—aids this sense of unease. Obscuring the Boogeyman in shadows turns every location into a potential hunting ground, ensuring that Sadie and Sawyer are never safe at any time.

Backing this effective camerawork up are strong performances. Semi-coincidental as it was casting two Star Wars actors (Thatcher cameoed in The Book of Boba Fett; Blair played Obi-Wan Kenobi’s young Leia), the duo play off each other well as sisters battling supernatural forces beyond their control, and at the very least they’re believable archetypes. Sawyer is fearful in ways you’d expect of a young girl, to the point of sleeping with a glow ball in bed as protection. Thatcher, meanwhile, finds the right blend of angst and verve to make Sadie’s anguish over her mother’s absence and encounters with the Boogeyman impactful. Even Messina, who’s mostly absent from the supernatural drama until the end, finds a solid equilibrium between Chris’s obliviousness and genuine love for his daughters. The man just sucks at listening to them when they need it the most.

The story certainly isn’t perfect. Much of its second act reuses the tried-and-true jump scare formula, which, however effective, becomes a bit too frequent after a while. Nor does the B-plot of Sadie reconciling with an old friend, now palling around with her high school’s obnoxious mean girl crowd, go anywhere. The bullies, while not It—level monstrous, are still pretty awful, yet the movie ends this thread abruptly, without even a scene of the Boogeyman ambushing them. That, at least, would make their inclusion feel worthwhile.

No, where The Boogeyman really gets points is that looming sense of dread per scene. Savage and cinematographer Eli Born wring tension out of tight spaces and dark corridors, rendering its titular villain omnipresent at all times. While hardly on par with the best King horror movie adaptations (Misery, It: Chapter One), The Boogeyman certainly works on its own terms. Combined with Evil Dead Rise and M3GAN, it marks 2023 as a good year for horror in Hollywood.