The star behind the recent horror flick The Boogeyman is here to explain the film's ending twist.
Warning - the following contains spoilers for The Boogeyman.
The Boogeyman was first written by Stephen King in March 1973. Now, 50 years later, it’s made its way to movie theater screens worldwide as a major Hollywood blockbuster
As is tradition in the genre, it doesn’t end so conclusively.
In the climax of the movie, Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are forced to directly go against the creature in their basement to save their dad (Chris Messina). While things get hairy, the family is successful—the day is won.
However, while it seems The Boogeyman is defeated, in the film's last scene, Sadie heard its voice calling to her after therapy. What exactly do those vague final moments mean?
Explaining The End of The Boogeyman
Speaking exclusively with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, The Boogeyman star Vivien Lyra Blair explained the ending of the film.
When asked what she was most excited to talk about now that the movie was out and audiences have seen it, Blair was quick to point to “the basement stuff” towards the end of the film, a scene “where it all comes together:”
“I think the basement stuff, because that’s definitely what has to be most kept a secret… Because that’s when you see the monster, that’s when you really kind of get a grasp on what it is, what it’s doing, because you get little bits of information throughout the movie. But it’s really where it all comes together. You see it, and they’re fighting it, and it dies, and that’s really it. Well, I don’t think it does die, but it gets severely injured, that’s a way to put that. It moves out. (laughs) So, it’s really something that it kind of [brings] it all together.”
She then brought up the final scene, where she confirmed that “The Boogeyman… [is] still there and it’s not dead:”
“And then that final scene when they’re in the therapist’s office, I think that is just such a horror movie ending with The Boogeyman still being still there and it’s not dead. That’s such a horror movie way to end it. So, I think that was also really cool to be like, ’Of course.’”
When it comes to the creature itself, Blair shared how she’s “seen a lot of versions” of The Boogeyman, and what the movie settled on is “by far the scariest:”
“Well, I’ve seen a lot of versions. I think this was by far the scariest because most variations of The Boogeyman tend to put it as like a shadow kind of thing. Maybe like a shadow with pinprick eyes. And that’s what you see for most of the movie until you actually get to see it in the basement. And it is so scary and so gross…”
She continued, admitting that she “[doesn’t] really know what [she] was expecting:”
“I don’t really know what I was expecting, because I’ve seen it so many ways. I’ve seen it as just a guy, I’ve seen it as shadows, I’ve seen it as like a real, full-on spider. And while this kind of has versions of that, like it’s kind of shaped human-ish, it walks like a spider kind of thing, there are certain incorporations that they use from all those other different stories from boogeyman stories, I think this is definitely the scariest though. There are so many extra components that are so gross.”
A Classic Horror Ending
True to the genre, The Boogeyman can’t help but keep its resident monster alive and well by the time the credits scroll. After all, how else would they get a sequel?
The Harper family is lucky they made it out alive. Had The Boogeyman been rated R, odds are the leading characters would not have been nearly as well off.
The ending of the film does present some big questions. If Sadie can still hear the monster, what’s to stop it from finishing the job the moment they get home?
Perhaps Sophie Thatcher’s character unintentionally dropped the supernatural creature on her poor therapist’s doorstep.
The Boogeyman is now playing in theaters worldwide.
