dark matters

ROB SAVAGE DIRECTED THE SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE IN YEARS WITH LOCKDOWN SMASH HOST, AND NOW HE'S MAKING HIS STUDIO DEBUT WITH AN ADAPTATION OF STEPHEN KING'S THE BOOGEYMAN SAVAGE, LIKE THE TITLE MONSTER, THRIVES ON DARKNESS. BUT HOW DID HE SEE HIS WAY TO SHAPING A SHORT STORY INTO ONE OF THE YEAR'S MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR FEATURES?

- JAMIE GRAHAM

Back in the 1980s, at the height of Stephen King’s popularity, reviewers used to joke that the bestselling horror author could publish his laundry list and people would buy it. Hell, Stephen King used to joke that he could publish his laundry list and people would buy it.

You could also bet that said bill of items would then be turned into a movie – all of the major horror directors (Romero, Carpenter, Cronenberg) were turning their hands to adaptations – and, it seemed, everyone else was too, from Stanley Kubrick and Rob Reiner, who were expert filmmakers, to Fritz Kiersch and Paul Michael Glaser, who were not. Such was the scrabble that even King’s short stories were being optioned for features.

And yet The Boogeyman – first published in the March edition of Cavalier magazine in 1973, and then rounded up in 1978’s collection of King’s short fiction, Night Shift – remained untouched. OK, so it was turned into a 28-minute short by Jeff Schiro in 1982, but the obligatory feature was not forthcoming. And for good reason: just 15 pages long, The Boogeyman comprises a conversation between agitated patient Lester Billings and disinterested therapist Dr Harper, with the former telling the latter of how a closet-dwelling monster killed each of his three children in turn.

UNADAPTABLE, RIGHT? WRONG.