The Boogeyman

“The Boogeyman,” by Stephen King, is a horror short story originally published in the March 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine. It was published again in 1978 in a collection of King’s short stories titled Night Shift. The narrative uses foreshadowing, repetition, and a plot twist to explore the themes of Guilt as Self-Punishment, The Nature of Fear, and Supernatural Versus Human Monstrosity. Through third- and first-person narration, it follows Lester Billings as he recounts the circumstances of his three children’s deaths at the hands of the Boogeyman to a therapist, Dr. Harper.

Fear and monstrosity are common themes throughout all of King’s works, including the short story The House on Maple Street and two of his most famous novels, It and The Shining. His work has been adapted into over 60 films, 50 television shows, and 30 comic books, including sequels and derivative works. “The Boogeyman” was adapted into a 2023 film of the same name, which may also be considered a sequel to the short story, as it tells the story of Dr. Harper and his daughters, though Lester Billings does make an appearance.

This guide refers to the version of the story in the 2008 Hodder and Stoughton e-book Night Shift.

Content Warning: This study guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word. The source material also contains instances of other racial slurs, misogynistic language, and discussions of domestic violence.

The story begins by painting a picture of Lester Billings, a divorced 28-year-old father of three deceased children, lying on the couch in Dr. Harper’s office. Lester tells Dr. Harper that he wants to tell him his story, and he starts by saying that he killed all three of his children, one by one.

Lester clarifies that he did not kill the children himself. They were murdered, but he feels responsible. Before he can continue, Lester’s attention is drawn to the closed closet door, which seems to scare him. Dr. Harper opens it to show there is nothing inside. Satisfied, Lester says he wishes people believed he murdered his children, because then he would go to prison. He points out that you can see into all the rooms in a jail.

When Dr. Harper asks who killed the children, Lester says that the Boogeyman came out of the closet and killed them all. Their first child, Denny, began crying every time he went to bed, and his wife, Rita, suggested they give him a bottle. Lester refused, saying spoiled children grow up to be “sissies.”

One night, when Lester put Denny to bed, he cried, telling his father he was afraid of the Boogeyman. Lester considered slapping his wife, assuming she had taught Denny about the Boogeyman. He says to Dr. Harper that children can be so annoying “[y]ou could kill them” (103). That night, Rita and Lester found Denny dead, and unnaturally pale. Describing this incident to Harper, Lester uses a racist slur, comparing Denny’s body to pictures of children killed in the Vietnam War. The doctor said it was crib death, but Lester did not believe it. Immediately after his son’s death, he noticed that Denny’s closet door was open “just a crack” (103).

A month later, Lester and his wife moved their daughter, Shirl, who had been sleeping in their room, to Denny’s crib. Rita was reluctant, but Lester insisted. Lester recounts his experience of going to the beach with his mother as a child to Dr. Harper. She would scream at him not to go too deep, to be careful of the undertow, and to watch out for sharks. Now he claims he cannot go near the water without feeling sick.

Lester tells Dr. Harper that a year went by before Shirl claimed to see the Boogeyman. One night, when he heard Shirl scream, he opened the door quickly and saw something slithering in the shadows near the closet, which was open “just a crack” (105). Shirl kept repeating a word that sounded like “craws.” Lester, believing she was having trouble with the “L” sound, thought she meant “claws.” Dr. Harper suggests that Shirl was trying to say “closet.”

Lester says that when he found Shirl dead in her crib, her skin had turned black. He uses a racist slur to describe the condition of Shirl’s body. The doctor told them she had suffered a brain convulsion and choked on her own tongue, but again, Lester did not believe this. He believed the convulsion was due to fright. The next year, Rita got pregnant with Andy, even though she had an IUD fitted. Lester was unhappy about the pregnancy, believing Rita took out her IUD in an attempt to tie him down with more children. He expresses misogynistic opinions on women to Dr. Harper, disparaging the women’s liberation movement.

When Andy turned one, the family moved to Waterbury, and, according to Lester, had the best year of their lives. He believed they had escaped the Boogeyman. However, the following year, the new house seemed to change. Lester suspected that the Boogeyman had sniffed them out and found his family again. Lester started snapping at Rita, just like he used to. He tells Dr. Harper he began to believe that if you think about something long enough and really believe in it, it can become real. He wondered if the monsters he feared as a child were real after all, and how many deaths they might really be responsible for.

Lester continues his story, saying Rita left home for two months to take care of her mother after an accident. In her absence, the Boogeyman grew bolder. One night, Lester claims that all the doors in the house blew wide open. On another occasion, he woke to find a trail of mud between the hall closet and the front door, the mirrors broken, and his records scratched and covered in slime.

Andy and Lester had been sleeping in the same room, but Lester admits to Dr. Harper that he moved his son back to the nursery one night. He hoped the Boogeyman would target Andy instead of him because Andy was weaker. That night, Andy woke Lester screaming, and when Lester ran into the room, the Boogeyman had Andy and was shaking him.

Lester tells Dr. Harper that he heard Andy’s neck break, and fled the house. When he finally returned and called the police, Lester told them Andy must have fallen trying to get out of his crib. Again, the closet door was open “just a crack” (111).

Noticing their time is up, Dr. Harper asks Lester to make another appointment with the nurse. Reluctantly, Lester agrees, but when he reaches the nurse’s desk, she has gone. He goes back to Dr. Harper’s office to tell him, but the room is empty. The closet’s door is open “just a crack” (111). The Boogeyman emerges, carrying a Dr. Harper mask in one of his clawed hands.