Why Sadie’s Lighter Flame Moves In The Boogeyman (& What It Means)

The Boogeyman's ending sees heroine Sadie's lighter flame move at a pivotal moment, but why does this happen and what does the moment symbolize?

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Boogeyman

While The Boogeyman has a fairly straightforward story, the Stephen King short story adaptation still throws in a surprising twist involving Sadie's lighter. The Boogeyman sees Host director Rob Savage bring his considerable horror pedigree to a more mainstream project. Savage's first two movies, Host and DASHCAM, were more experimental efforts that took place entirely on a Zoom call and a live stream respectively. In contrast, The Boogeyman is an uncomplicated adaptation of Stephen King's short story of the same name from the iconic horror author's debut collection Night Shift.

Fortunately, The Boogeyman's success ended King's bad adaptation streak. The Boogeyman follows the Harper family, consisting of a therapist father, Will, and his two daughters Sadie and Sawyer. The Harper sisters are reeling from the death of their mother when a mysterious man warns Will of the titular threat. After this man's death, Sadie and Sawyer are haunted by the Boogeyman as Sadie attempts to commune with her dead mother. Her attempts prove fruitless, although Sadie's grief does seem to feed the Boogeyman. However, a last-minute twist ending proves that Sadie's efforts weren't misguided after all.

Early in The Boogeyman, just after Sawyer's first encounter with the eponymous monster, Sadie watches a Youtube video on communing with the dead. The presenter tells the viewer to light a flame and ask the dead to move the flame to prove their presence. Sadie attempts to do this numerous times prove fruitless. In The Boogeyman's ending the monster descends on Sawyer, Sadie, and an injured Will. While a few stray light sources keep the photophobic monster at bay for a while, Sadie's lighter inevitably dies. This plunges the family into darkness until the spirit of Sadie's late mother heroically moves the flame, scaring the Boogeyman.

This distraction allows Sadie to set the Boogeyman ablaze. Since Sawyer already doused the monster in lighter fluid, the Boogeyman is soon burnt to a crisp. Notably, this leads to a bigger fire that soon consumes the entire family home, beginning in the basement. Since Sadie moved all of her mother's belongings into the basement at the start of The Boogeyman, they are likely destroyed in the blaze. However, the loss of these sentimental artifacts is ameliorated by Sadie's knowledge that her mother's spirit is not only present with her but strong enough to save the lives of her and her family.

Earlier in The Boogeyman, Sawyer receives an unwanted paranormal visitation at the same time that Sadie is actively inviting spirits into the family home. The Boogeyman's ending inverts this setup, with Sadie finally receiving confirmation that her mother's spirit can hear her and cares about her while Swayer is saved from the dark manifestation plaguing her. Thus, the lighter is used to link The Boogeyman's themes of grief, loss, and learning how to integrate the past into the present. Sadie's attempts to return to the past initially empower the monster, but her eventual acceptance of her tragic loss paradoxically proves that no one is ever gone for good in The Boogeyman's surprisingly hopeful ending.