“If I get Letterboxd premium, would I find this movie by searching “Boogeyman” as opposed to “The Boogeyman”?
I was all set to give this movie big points because, after the tragedy of her mother’s death, a girl returns to school, and the other kids are a little awkward, but they’re not mean, they’re not cruel, and that felt very real.
Then Luna Lovebad comes on the scene and starts doing the movie thing:
“Maybe you should just like, get over your mom’s death or whatever.”
“Everyone thinks you’re a freak because your mom died.”
“Nobody likes you or wants to be friends with you [said at a party at the girl’s house, which you wouldn’t attend if you hated her that much].”
Our hero slaps that son of a Lovegood right across the face, which is totally deserved, and the other girls are like, “Oh, boo, that’s going too far.” Seriously?
If my best fucking friend was being that much of an asshole and got a slap in the face, I’d be like, “Bro, I was assuming you were TRYING to get popped, because that’s the only reason to be that much of a dickhole.”
Hollywood, I have some alternatives to the asshole bully that might strike your fancy:
1. What if the main character WAS, in fact, a little bit of a freak? What if the “bully” was just someone saying things in a not-so-great way, but was overall not being a jerk? And what if our hero took it WAY too far in slapping her one? It’s okay for our hero to give an unwarranted slap, we can still like her. Her mom just died. She’s not her best self.
2. What if the bully becomes useful because they’re being a tough jerk, and that ends up being helpful when the monster shows up?
3. What if the bully is protecting our hero, who experienced a recent tragedy? What if our hero was friends with the bully prior, and now that’s not such a bad thing?
4. What if our hero WAS the bully? And this tragedy in her family is kind of rough because now that she’s returning to school, nobody is really feeling all that bad for her because she’s made everyone else’s life miserable?”