Review: The Bye Bye Man

(teaser-trailer.com)

January has been a struggle for horror movies ever since the first blog pointed it out. Between failed box office sales and scathing reviews, the genre has no friends during this cold winter month. There are exceptions and it's easy to have high hopes for Split after M. Night Shymalan's The Visit, but ultimately this "dump month" has taken no prisoners. Enter The Bye Bye Man. Heading in with little to no expectations proved beneficial, but ultimately pointless. From its award-winning title (sarcasm), to the over-acted, sometimes laughable performances by the cast- even more so for those in supporting roles, the film was a quick and sloppy hit job offering far too few scares and disjointed storytelling. The Bye Bye Man, save a few jump scares, did little to pull the audience along on a direct path of fear and horror. 


The Bye Bye Man tells the story of a group of three friends who rent a too-large house near the college they're attending. The old, somewhat depleted house that they can somehow afford, comes equipped with it's own storied past and soon "spooky" things start happening. As it turns out a reaper(?) named The Bye Bye Man (yes, the same one from the title) seeks out and kills people who say, and in turn become obsessed with, his long-winded name. Written by former Survivor contestant, Jonathan Penner, and directed by Stacy Title (Let the Devil Wear Black), The Bye Bye Man stars Douglas Smith (Ouija), Lucien Laviscount (Scream Queens) and Cressida Bonas.

As an atypical horror fan that actually enjoys the occasional jolt resulting from a jump scare, I wish I could commend the work of The Bye Bye Man, yet, I can't. Far and few between, the movie's jump scares are weak and predictable. As noted, I am perfectly happy with jump scares and mainstream, modern teen horror. I quite love throwing out my back as I fall out of my seat and actually enjoy movies like The Gallows, but The Bye Bye Man manages to turn jumps into shrugs and horror into Horrible Bosses 2-level comedy. 

The most aggressively sour moments of The Bye Bye Man come in the form of poor writing and supporting actors unable to act seriously or well. While some "jokes" seemed placed, it the majority of the film's humor was most definitely unintentional. Where films like Scream are able to tell a scary story that also makes you laugh, The Bye Bye Man told a boring story that also makes you cringe. See first the "sensitive" psychic who comes out of nowhere and dresses like a Mob Wife. With her character, the viewer gets its first look at the painstaking journey they're about to embark on. The binder continues to grow throughout
The Bye Bye Man, adding a landlord who seems pulled from the street onto the screen, a brother whose plot line is inconsequential, a librarian who is possibly the only intentional comic relief (it's spotty) and then the wife of a past victim who proves to have little purpose. All of them perform equally bad- whether through poor writing or questionable skills.

One of the film's final straws is pulled with the needless and off-center remark noting the Columbine shootings. Despite being nothing like the tragedy, the creators of The Bye Bye Man seemed all too comfortable candidly throwing around the event without offering the plot points, class or tact, necessary to do so. Even aside from the political incorrectness of the issue, the remark comes out of nowhere and like the viewing of this movie, is a painful experience.

Ultimately, you could go through and list all of the movies The Bye Bye Man tries to emulate, but that list (including films like It Follows, The Babadook and Final Destination) would be exhaustive and unrelenting. In the end, The Bye Bye Man is like that kid who never brought a pen to class. He shows up, deeply unprepared and ready to disrupt other students, or in the case of the horror genre, the work done by the amazing horror movies of 2016 (see Lights Out, The Witch, The Autopsy Of Jane Doe, etc.). The Bye Bye Man, like the unprepared student is good for the occasional laugh, but sometimes you have to wonder if it causes more harm than good. I'd give this movie nine out of ten stabs to your face, but only two stars out of a thousand.