Last month, it was revealed that the upcoming movie adaptation of Stephen King's 1973 horror story The Boogeyman scared audiences so much during test screenings that certain scenes had to be recut.
According to the film's director Rob Savage, who appeared at the Los Angeles premiere of the film on Tuesday (May 23), it turns out that The Boogeyman even managed to frighten Stephen King. Despite being worried that he wouldn't like it, Savage expressed his excitement over having made such an impact on the legendary horror author, describing it as a "pinch me moment".
Speaking at the event, Savage told the PA news agency (as per The Evening Standard): "When he doesn’t like a movie, he’s pretty vocal about it – he doesn’t like The Shining – so it was pretty nerve-wracking showing him the movie.
"He’d read the script and loved the script, so I knew that if he didn’t like the movie, it was all my fault.”
As Savage explains, King watched the finished film with his nephew in his favourite cinema in Maine, which was rented out for his viewing.
Of what the horror maverick thought of movie, Savage continued, "He apparently had the best time, it scared the shit out of him. He sent me this lovely essay (after) about how much he’d enjoyed the movie.”
When asked to compare whether his film was better than Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of The Shining, he noted: "To have made a movie that scared Stephen King, that’s a pinch me moment.”
Actor David Dastmalchian also offered praise on Savage's directional talents, and said: "He did a phenomenal job. He asked a lot of us as actors he didn’t settle for anything and that’s the kind of director I want to be with.
“I heard that Stephen King liked the movie and messaged with Rob, and that’s just surreal, man, I can’t believe it’s true – but I can because I’ve seen the film and I know how good it is.”
The movie follows the story of high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair), who are in mourning after their mother's recent death. Meanwhile, after a desperate patient shows up unexpectedly at their house asking for help from their therapist father, they soon become haunted by a terrifying monster.
The Boogeyman will arrive in cinemas on June 2. Watch the trailer below:
