Kiwi actor Lucy Lawless, who fought monsters from ancient myth in Xena: Warrior Princess, has to deal with the modern kind in a movie that opens in the United States today.
Lawless stars as a "drug-addled mother who has to give up custody of her son" in the horror film Boogeyman.
Young actor Barry Stiles stars as her son, who returns to his childhood home to confront a terrifying vision he's had all his life that a creature abducted his father.
Lawless, worth at least an estimated $15 million making her one of the country's richest actors, last year had a small part in the American comedy Eurotrip where she played a character called Madame Vandersexxx.