The Boogeyman has arrived on streaming platforms in the UK and US in time for Halloween after scaring cinemagoers earlier this year.
The new movie is an expansion of the Stephen King short story of the same name, focusing on the Harper family – dad Will and daughters Sadie and Sawyer – who find themselves having to deal with a terrifying entity.
It's a result of a stranger named Lester coming to see Will at his home, having told him about his encounter with the Boogeyman, which is what King fans will be familiar with from the short story.
Lester's children were killed by the titular Boogeyman and in unburdening himself to Will, he unleashes the entity on the Harpers. Sadie seeks answers from Will's wife Rita who uses Sadie as bait to capture the Boogeyman, but she manages to escape.
Can she warn her father and sister before it's too late? Let's delve into the ending of The Boogeyman to explain all, and why that ambiguous final shot might be darker than you think.
The Boogeyman ending explained
The Harper house is now riddled with the black vein-like scars of the Boogeyman all over the walls. An injured Will (who finally believes there is a monster, having been attacked by it) is in the basem*nt while smart young Sawyer, realising the creature doesn't like light, has wrapped herself in fairy lights and hidden away.
Sadie finds her, and the two of them – Sawyer deciding it's best to stick with her resourceful sister rather than wait upstairs – go down to the basem*nt to find their dad.
A battle with the Boogeyman ensues, in which it tries to suck the life out of Sadie, but the family fight back and Sadie sets the creature on fire using her mother's lighter and an aerosol can.
Eventually, the monster is defeated, and Will, Sadie and Sawyer escape their house, which is now engulfed by flames.
We next see the family at the office of psychiatrist Dr Weller, who Sadie and Sawyer had been meeting throughout the movie to help with the loss of their mother. This time their dad is with them and the family is finally together, united both in grief and also in the relief that the monster has been defeated. (Presumably their next meeting will be with an estate agent now they need somewhere to live.)
Watch The Boogeyman on Disney+
It seems that all is well as the family leaves at the end of the appointment, but then Sadie goes back into the room to see Dr Weller and discovers she isn't there – and the closet door is open.
Could the Boogeyman be back? Dr Weller then appears, and a relieved Sadie goes outside to be with her family as the movie ends.
It appears that the Harpers are free of the Boogeyman in that final scene, but fans of the original Stephen King story may think otherwise.
In the 50-year-old short story – which can be found in the 'Night Shift' collection of King's horror stories (and also includes, for King movie fans, the original stories for The Lawnmower Man, Children of the Corn and two stories that became the movie Cat's Eye) – the ending is a little different, and not quite so happy ever after.
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The story focuses on Lester Billings' visit to Dr Harper and him explaining how his children died, which is the basis for the start of the movie – but in King's version, Lester does not commit suicide or pass the Boogeyman on to Harper (and there is no mention of Harper's daughters, either).
The entire story (which is just over 10 pages long if you fancy a read) is set in the psychiatrist's office, and the final paragraphs have Billings leaving Dr Harper's office – just as Sadie leaves Dr Weller's in the movie – and then turning back and going back in to find no one there, just as Sadie does.
And, writes King, "the closet door was open. Just a crack."
Billings then hears a creepy voice from the closet say "so nice" before the door swings open and the Boogeyman comes out. And if that doesn't get you, King's final line of the story certainly will: "It still held its Dr Harper mask in one rotted, spade-claw hand."
So in the story, the Boogeyman was Dr Harper all along. Had the Boogeyman eaten him and taken on his persona? Who knows.
We're not suggesting that dad Will Harper is the Boogeyman in the movie version – that would be a twist and a half, and hard to explain how he was attacked by the monster if he was the monster – but if you mirror the final scene of the story with the final scene of the movie, it could mean that Dr Weller is a little more than she seems.
The open closet door is there, she isn't there when Sadie goes back in – but then she does come back in the room, seemingly as a normal person (unlike the doctor in the story).
Of course, it's likely that she is a nice human and that's the end of the story for Sadie and her family, but there is always the chance that Weller is the Boogeyman – and it is just biding its time before it gets a chance to terrorise the family once more.
The Boogeyman is available to watch now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.
Jo Berry
Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies.
She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
