One of the more effective scares teased in the trailer of The Boogeyman, the latest from director Rob Savage (Host, Dashcam), makes terrifying use of a glowing moon ball in the dark. This moment encapsulates the horror movie’s quintessential light versus dark, good versus evil battle.
Ahead of The Boogeyman’s release in theaters this Friday, Bloody Disgusting spoke with Savage about the fear of the dark and crafting scares from it, which led to a surprising revelation about the light source that Disney vetoed that would’ve created an accidental Star Wars connection.
Because light is so vital in The Boogeyman, Savage explained his approach during our chat. He told us, “I wanted it to be simple and classic. It really is a story about light and dark, and we boil everything down to a very simple mythology. I wanted it to feel like the story that everyone already knows in their gut; you know that you’re not going to see the creature in the light. You know that’s a thing that lives in the darkness. So, we had this motif of light and dark and what’s lurking in the shadows. From there, it was really about how to give every single scare scene its own identity.
Savage continued, “I think James Wan is so great at doing this, and I forced everyone to sit through all the Conjuring movies. Every single scene, every scare scene you can identify by the hide and clap scene, everyone knows what you’re talking about as soon as you say that.
“I wanted it to be the same way in The Boogeyman, but with light. So, you talk about the moon ball; everyone can picture that sequence. You talk about the red light; it’s very distinctive. Between me and Eli Born, the cinematographer, we tried to come up with different ways to incorporate this idea of a kind of battle between light and dark. Also, the red light sequence is so pivotal. Coming up with light sources that are unreliable or that only illuminate the room in quick bursts, like the Christmas lights, obviously has these periods of darkness in between. And just using light to make the audience feel as anxious as possible was basically our directive.”
Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper in 20th Century Studios’ THE BOOGEYMAN. Photo by Patti Perret.
© 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The moon ball that young Sawyer Harper (Vivien Lyra Blair) holds is instantly recognizable, but Savage initially had a very different light source in mind that was inspired by his own childhood: a toy lightsaber. Because Blair previously starred in “Obi-Wan Kenobi” as young Leia Organa, however, Savage reveals how Disney prompted him to rethink his idea.
“The moon ball was interesting because we came up with it at the very last minute. It was meant to be a lightsaber originally,” he explains. “Because when I was a kid, I had a light that would fritz out. So, when she was in the hallway, she was meant to be holding this lightsaber, and it was meant to stop working and messing up. I’d forgotten that Vivian played Princess Leia, and Disney didn’t want her holding a knockoff lightsaber that was fritzing out. They thought that was a bad look, so we had to come up with something fast, and we just Googled kids’ toys that light up, and we found this moon ball and rewrote the scenes in an afternoon. And it just ended up being the most distinctive image of the movie, little Vivian with the moon ball. So, it’s great. Normally when things like that come up, it always changes the film for the better.”
Does Savage’s childhood lightsaber inspiration mean he’s personally acquainted with Sawyer’s deep fear of the dark? “I’m still afraid of the dark,” the filmmaker candidly answers. “I think everyone’s afraid of the dark on some level. And that’s what I was trying to do with this one; take everyone back to being that scared little kid sitting in the darkness, imagining that your hoodie draped over the back of the chair is a person staring at you; trying to evoke those fears.“
The Boogeyman releases in theaters on June 2, 2023.
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