Actor David Dastmalchian is no stranger to darkness.

He has explored the shallow and lonesome depths of mental health as a disturbed henchman in The Dark Knight and as an escaped, maze-obsessed captive in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners. But his latest turn as Lester in Disney’s new bone-chilling thriller The Boogeyman was one the Bethlehem, Pa.-born actor didn’t envision.

In fact, he almost turned down the offer when he was sent the script. ”It was good, but too scary for me. I wasn’t interested in making myself as vulnerable as I knew I needed to be to help this film.”