Review of The Bye Bye Man (2017) by Orlando O — 08 May 2017

The Bye Bye Man can not be any more exciting than making you wanting to say bye bye as you walk away from this movie. The Bye Bye Man is a horrible supernatural horror film that has a direction that's not sure if its trying to make the audience laugh or scared. It has some dull acting, boring direction, and the scares are nonetheless not there. Bye Bye Man has that folk title of a fiction character that once the name is said, he will come with his demonic hound and the people involved would be delusional, see things, makes them want to hurt each other as their weakness is revealed and even kill each other.

The plot follows Elliot (Douglas Smith) and his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and friend John (Lucien Laviscount) moving into a house together. They find some old furniture in a basement. And a night stand that constantly drops coins. Once they find a carving of a title The Bye Bye Man inside the drawer and accidentally saying it. Elliot, Sasha, and John will have to do whatever it takes to beat this supernatural force. They have to follow the one rule, of don't think it, don't say it.

This film feels like a shadowed version with horror ionic characters like Candyman, Boogeyman, etc. I am sure there are better horror movies that will provide scares than this. This film does lack scares, thrills, and its not even exciting. From the opening moments, of 1960's seeing a man yelling out loud "don't think it, don't say it." And killing people. I love how characters are written to be as dumb as they just stand right in front of the threat as it happens. It gets worse, and more annoying especially when the tagline of don't say it is mentioned quite a lot. Not sure, if its either terrible acting or just cheesy to see on screen.

Lets talk about the acting. The acting was horrible and every character is written as one- dimensional. The actors definitely looked like they are reading straight from the script without even building their characters. Elliot may seem like the reasonable caring character, which loves his girlfriend and friend and his brother and niece. Especially, when his brother and niece come by their house a lot. Even at midnight, when Elliot is trying to keep his family away from the bye bye man being noticed by them. One main issue I had was who takes a little girl out to visit their uncle after midnight. Seems kind of late for visiting. Also, I feel like Carrie-Anne Moss talent is wasted here, as she plays a detective trying to figure out these strange webs of murders. She comes and goes on screen.

The Bye Bye Man may seem like a creepy character that stands in the shadows in a dark room. But its nothing scary about the guy besides making everyone around him go mad. Besides the movie having a boring direction that does not provide scares and just a bunch young adults trying to survive against this evil figure.

Overall, The Bye Bye Man is horrible. Terrible acting, no scares or thrills, and a boring direction. I do not recommend unless you're really bored.