Horror In Stephen King's The Boogeyman

One of Stephen King’s short stories would be The Boogeyman which indeed falls into horror genre. It takes third person point of view with dialogue that is first person which informs the reader about everything that is going on. The story starts off with Lester Billings the main character saying he wants to tell a story to his therapist Dr.Harper. He proceeds by saying,”All I did was kill my kids. One at a time. Killed them all”(Page 1), which makes the story interesting right from the start by attracting the viewer with ideas of murder and introducing the horror aspect of the story. Billings goes on about how his three children Denny, Shirl and Andrew were killed by the Boogeyman. His first child was the first case of the Boogeyman when Denny

seemed more scared than usual pointing at the closet saying,“Boogeyman, Daddy”(Page 2). Billings seemed to brush it off not wanting to raise a coward so when the middle of the night rolled in Denny was found dead. Shirl the second child was then moved to Denny’s room and the same thing happened, she was screaming that the Boogeyman was in the closet. Noticing that it was the same instance as Denny he thought about taking her into his room but he didn’t since he couldn’t appear to his wife Rita that he was wrong. This part of the short story is when description comes in to captivate the reader with the usage of imagery. Billings continues telling his story by saying, “she was sitting up in the crib crying and.

. . something moved. Back in the shadows, by the closet. Something slithered.”(Page 5). He heard Shirl saying something about claws and then it transitions to her dead body. There’s seems to be a sign of guilt when Billings was looking at Shirl’s body since he described that her eyes seemed shiny almost saying,”it got me, Daddy, you let it get me, you killed me, you helped it kill me” (Page 6). The family decides to move away to a new house to see if there’s a change and Billings wife gets pregnant again with baby Andrew Lester Billings. At first Billings is not fond of the child but sharing the same characteristics of his father sure did make Billings adore Andrew. Soon Billings is the one who becomes the coward, not opening closets afraid something might attack him. Billings didn’t want the Boogeyman to kill Andrew just like Denny and Shirl so he brought Andrew to sleep with him Rita in his room. Suspense builds up when sign of the Boogeyman appears in their home after a year without appearance. Billings states,” One night every door in the house blew wide

open. One morning I got up and found a trail of mud and filth across the hall between the coat closet and the front door...records all scratched up and covered with slime, mirrors broken”(Page 8).

Lots of fear arises within the main character knowing that the clawlike creature is back. Andrew is moved to his own room, the first night of the moving, the Boogeyman strikes again. This time Billings was aware of the attack but he just let it happen, he stated” And I knew how much I loved him because I ran...I didn't even turn on the light...it was shaking him...I heard it when Andy's neck broke”( Page 9). Billings was such a coward that he just watched his son die instead of doing something to save him, he just ran away from his problem and went to a nearby diner for hours. Dr. Harper wants to help Billings out by telling him to make more appointments to deal with his problem so he agrees and goes to the front desk but no one is there. The element of surprise comes in when Billings goes back to Dr. Harper's office. The story stated,” So nice,' the boogeyman said as it shambled out. It still held its Dr Harper mask in one rotted, spade claw hand”( Page

10). Turns out Dr. Harper was the Boogeyman throughout the whole appointment session targeting Billings.
The short story goes through the changes of perspective of the protagonist