The Boogeyman's Sophie Thatcher Created A Playlist To Tap Into Sadie's Background

Before it was rescued from being catapulted directly into streaming service oblivion by Stephen King, "The Boogeyman" was set for a relatively muted debut on Hulu. But we're in an age where horror seems to be one of the few things people will pay to see at the movies, and thus we'll soon witness this adaptation of King's short story creeping into theaters.

In 2022, a few surprise hits confirmed it was worth giving smaller horror titles a chance at the box office, with "Smile" bringing in respectable receipts for Paramount and "Barbarian" proving to be a breakout hit for, of all studios, Disney. Now that same studio is trying its luck again with "The Boogeyman," which it acquired as part of its larger buyout of Fox back in 2019. And after some positive test screenings, and with the aforementioned backing of Mr. King, "The Boogeyman" is set to debut in theaters, where Disney will be hoping it, too, can bring horror fans out to the multiplex.

Directed by British filmmaker Rob Savage, the movie has all the elements you'd expect from a Stephen King adaptation, the most obvious being a malevolent entity that terrorizes a suburban family and is some sort of allegory for grief. But it's also going to benefit from starring "Yellowjackets" actor Sophie Thatcher, who plays the heart and soul of the Showtime series, Natalie, and whose star has been on the rise of late. And it looks as though the 22-year-old took her role in "The Boogeyman" as seriously as she could, even when the movie was still set for a lowly streaming release.

Despite Rob Savage having previously only directed lower budget films (two of which were constrained by the pandemic), "The Boogeyman" is an eerie and effective Stephen King adaptation that proves the filmmaker has the chops to make bigger budget stuff. But a large part of what makes the movie work is the performances, with Chris Messina delivering a perfectly pitched portrayal of a widowed therapist struggling in the wake of his wife's death. Meanwhile, Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair as his two daughters, Sadie and Sawyer, also provide effective performances as their characters contend with the loss of their mother and, of course, the titular supernatural beast.

For Thatcher, preparation was crucial, if only to make sure she could provide as believable a depiction of grief as possible. Speaking to ScreenRant, the actor revealed that she saw Sadie as a "very different person" prior to losing her mother, and focused on building a sense of who she was "before her grieving process." She added:

"I made a playlist for her so I can kind of live in her headspace. I don't think it was necessarily what she would listen to, but it was songs that would get me to what she was feeling. So that was important for me. But also just building what she was like with her friends before. It wasn't that she was a total loner, but this has forced her more into isolation because she feels disconnected from everybody."

Sophie Thatcher is building a reputation as an actor that takes her craft seriously, having brought an obsessive level of detail to her "Yellowjackets" character. The "Book of Boba Fett" star previously told W Magazine about her ambitions to connect with audiences through her work, saying, "I want to tell stories that make people feel less alone. Movies helped me so much through my childhood, and I want to do the same for others."

With "The Boogeyman," and its exploration of how grief affects familial bonds, she certainly has the opportunity to do that, and seemingly took that seriously considering her prep work. While making a playlist in and of itself isn't all that in-depth, it seems to be part of a larger process that saw Thatcher really trying to do justice to her character's emotional state — perhaps propelled by her overarching desire to "make people feel less alone" through her work.

All of which only helps this latest horror effort. Using Stephen King's short story as the inciting incident, "The Boogeyman" also boasts a capable director and committed performances, which gives it every chance of being this year's "Smile."

"The Boogeyman" arrives in theaters June 2, 2023.