Simply from the laughably atrocious title of the film alone, I’m sure many can guess why 2017’s ‘The Bye Bye Man’ fails so miserably as a horror flick. Coming across more as a student film project rather than a feature that actually made its way into cinemas (mostly due to its amateurish acting and filmmaking alike), ‘The Bye Bye Man’ is an incredibly lacklustre and mindless horror down to even its last few painful minutes of screen-time.
Plot Summary: When three college students move into an old house just off-campus, they unwittingly unleash a supernatural entity known as ‘The Bye Bye Man,’ a dark creature that preys upon any victim that discovers its name. Now, withholding this knowledge, the group attempt to keep the existence of ‘The Bye Bye Man’ a secret whilst also trying to save themselves…
Despite the film’s title implying otherwise, the actual antagonist of the film hardly appears in full throughout the runtime. In fact, the story on which the film is based; ‘The Bridge to Body Island,’ actually has a much more complex mythology for the creature than the film itself. Originally being born albino in New Orleans in 1912, who eventually ran away from home and began murdering people and cutting out their eyes and tongues, which he would then sew together and bring to life using voodoo. The original story of ‘The Bye Bye Man’ is far more interesting and disturbing than what appears in the film, which is nothing short of undeveloped and even fairly boring in terms of both his design and his abilities.
Relatively new actors Douglas Smith, Cressida Bonas and Lucien Laviscount, unfortunately, all lead the film with quite poor performances. As, while the cringey and often moronic writing certainly doesn’t help, their performances are lacking in both urgency and charisma, so it becomes quite difficult to care about them once the supernatural occurrences begin. Surprisingly, though, the actor behind ‘The Bye Bye Man’ himself, is Doug Jones, known for his fantastic creature/character performances, such as ‘Abe Sapien’ in the ‘Hellboy’ series, and ‘The Amphibian Man’ in ‘The Shape of Water.’ Yet, even though Jones may seem like too much of an accomplished actor to be in such a minimal role as this, with talented actress Carrie-Anne Moss also making an appearance, it’s possible that at one point in time the screenplay for this film may have actually contained some creative ideas.
James Kniest’s cinematography is another area in which the film lacks, as the bland camerawork only allows for a couple of visually interesting shots throughout, usually resulting in the film having a very flat and occasionally cheap look. However, one shot the filmmakers must have been pleased with is the shot of a large industrial train traveling at night, as this shot is continuously reused at multiple points. But, what’s confusing here, is that this shot’s inclusion is never explained, nor does it having any bearing on the plot whatsoever, only appearing at random within the protagonist’s dreams and once in the real world nearing the end of the film.
The film’s original score by The Newton Brothers isn’t memorable in the slightest, simply being a standard piano and strings-focused horror score with the exception of the track; ‘The Bye Bye Man,’ which feels very out-of-place when compared to the rest of the film’s soundtrack, as the creature’s main theme sounds like something ripped straight from an episode of ‘Goosebumps.’ Also worth a quick mention is the film’s corny use of the recognisable ’50s song; ‘Bye Bye Love,’ which is just far too on-the-nose for me.
From its constant jump-scares to its many typical horror clichés (e.g. a group of college teens, creepy scribbled drawings, an old foreboding house, a protagonist who looks up the creature’s origins in a library), the film is teeming with much of the usual problematic writing that floods many modern horror screenplays. Only this time, the film has simply nothing else to set itself apart from others within the genre. The only aspect of the film that could’ve been remarkable would’ve been ‘The Bye Bye Man’ himself and his ‘Seeing-Eye Hound,’ made from pieces of his victims. But, as already mentioned, the film does nothing with its antagonist or his hound, only utilising the dog creature to stand alongside ‘The Bye Bye Man’ through some truly abysmal CG effects.
In summary, ‘The Bye Bye Man’ is one of the last films I’d recommend to any horror fanatic. Completely absent of any likeable characters, an intriguing/threatening antagonist or any sense of an eerie atmosphere, it’s hard to believe that the film has any positive reviews at all. And, yet, somehow, it does. All we can do is hope horrors such as this fade into obscurity and never receive a sequel, prequel or anything else of the sort, as this genre has already suffered enough in recent years with the likes of ‘Truth or Dare,’ ‘Chernobyl Diaries,’ and ‘The Gallows,’ just to name a few. Final Rating: 1/10.
Joe Baker - Film Reviews 