E's Reviews: The Bye Bye Man

Don’t think it...Don’t say it...Don’t watch it...unless you’ve got nothing better to do.

THE BYE BYE MAN was directed by Stacy Title and stars Douglas Smith as Elliot, Lucien Laviscount as John, and Cressida Bonas as Sasha, who are three college students who move into an old house off campus. They unwittingly unleash a supernatural entity known as The Bye Bye Man, who comes to prey upon them once they discover his name. The friends must try to save each other, all the while keeping The Bye Bye Man's existence a secret to save others from the same deadly fate. Unfortunately...it doesn’t work out the way the friends want it to.

People who have read my reviews in the past know, I’m a huge sucker for a bad movie. I’m particularly fond of this wave of PG-13 horror. I already know going in that these films will not be terrific, and I enjoy them for what they are: cheese-fests with horrible writing, absolutely idiotic decision-making from the characters, and just some of the dumbest concepts ever. This film, however, had a decent concept, somewhat likable characters, but had so many other shortcomings going for it, that it completely destroyed it. Fortunately for the filmmaker and the cast and crew, it did very well at the box office. As with the majority of these new PG-13 horror productions, it was made for a modest 7.4 million dollars, and made over 22.3 million worldwide. I’d call that a success. But is the film good? Does it deserve to have made that money?

The biggest issue I think this film had going for it, was that it was an obvious take on the Slender Man story. If you’re not familiar with Slender Man, it was a creepy pasta that was made on the Internet. If you think about him, if you talk about him, if you investigate him, if you notice him, etc. he will appear and force you to do horrific things, or he’ll take you and do horrific things to you. The antagonist of this movie, The Bye Bye Man (silly name...really...) is just that...a Slender Man knock off without any real background lore to make it something more than just a silly name. Sure, when he appears in the film (usually in shadows for effect...and they were shot pretty decently), he is quite terrifying to see. The issue is, there really isn’t anything in the movie that will make you scared of him. The filmmaker tries to build tension between the characters and this villain, but it just doesn’t work. It makes me think that the primary reason the film has been absolutely obliterated by fans of the genre and critics alike, is this: it’s just not scary.

There are decent shots in the movie, really good angles that bring you in and tell you ‘hey, this is a horror movie!’ But when you throw in a bad script, scares that are cliche and overdone, and a cast of characters that are bland, you get a boring movie which has all the potential to be something much much greater. The dreadful title, the knock-off Slender Man creature, the weird CGI hound that The Bye Bye Man appears with (it looks very goofy...) and little to no development of either the cast or the creature, left me feeling like I just didn’t care when the 3rd act developed into a chaotic act of violence (forced upon Elliot by this demonic entity which we don’t even understand HOW it works!)
It was very sad, in the end, because I genuinely wanted this film to be a diamond in the rough. It had great potential, and a very talented director at the helm.

With a better script, a better title, this could’ve been something very cool for genre fans. The one saving grace, I think, was Douglas Smith. He was absolutely terrible in Ouija, a movie I had the displeasure of watching earlier this year, but in The Bye Bye Man he redeemed himself entirely, and proved he can actually lead a cast. He was great and I give him all the credit for carrying this cast. Keep an eye out though for Leigh Whannell (Insidious, Upgrade) who plays a reporter in the film. He’s one of my favorite horror directors and if you haven’t seen Upgrade yet, definitely check it out, it’s a blast!

Final Score: 4/10