The Bye Bye Man review: The first of many horror films of 2017 hits cinemas. Is it a horror fan’s dream or nightmare?
Read our full The Bye Bye Man review below.
The horror genre has given us some of the most iconic villains and monsters in cinematic history. Jason Vorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Leatherface are just a few of the longest-lasting, but studios are always on the hunt for fresh meat. Enter ‘The Bye Bye Man’ who gets his first big screen outing in this week’s new fright flick, The Bye Bye Man.
College student Elliott (Douglas Smith) moves into a new house off campus with his best friend John (Lucian Laviscount), and girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas). Soon after moving in Elliott uncovers a weird nightstand inscribed with the words ‘Don’t think it, don’t say it’, and ‘Bye Bye Man’. Following this discovery the trio find themselves hallucinating, getting sick and turning on each other; is Bye Bye Man to blame? And can they stop him before becoming his next victims?
2016 gave us some brilliant horror offerings, but if The Bye Bye Man is any indicator, horror fans could be set for a terrible time in 2017. This is a film that is so bland and generic, it almost hurts. A film made for the disposable, home video audience, it’s a wonder how it made it to theatres. The narrative makes no sense; it’s a muddled affair riddled with plot holes. Our monster is also never fully explained, leaving the audience to go on blind faith, making illogical leaps the whole way through.
Things do get off to a strong start, with a sixties-set massacre in suburbia before we hurtle forwards to the present. The events that unfold appear completely unconnected to the past, that is until they are shoehorned together rather randomly. It’s a tenuous link that has our leads jumping to ridiculous conclusions based on very little knowledge of what has gone before. It feels like this was once a longer film and was significantly cut down, big portions hacked away without bothering to smooth over the gaps. We zig and zag all over the place, and with nothing – plot or character – fleshed out, there’s a massive disconnect.
Amongst all the terrible decisions are the bones of what could be a compelling tale. There are better ways to connect these story strands together and inject some emotion, as well as scares, into proceedings. The Bye Bye Man is almost devoid of scare sequences, there’s none of the James Wan / Blumhouse big build ups and payoffs. Instead, we get a couple of glaringly obvious ‘jumps’ which just feel cheap.
It’s not that this is an awful film, it’s just put together inadequately, and is highly unoriginal. Even the idea of a monster being believed into life has been done before; hit TV-show Supernatural even had an episode about it. Then there’s the inevitable cliché sequel set-up which just leaves a sour taste in the mind.
Sadly ‘The Bye Bye Man’ won’t be entering the monster hall of fame anytime soon. He’s not particularly creepy, and without a backstory of any kind, he makes no sense. All we know is that he has a hound (which looks like a badly rendered PS1 Resident Evil creature), and that he is somehow connected to trains. This, along with everything else, is never explained.
There will be no need to try and not think about The Bye Bye Man after viewing as it’ll be forgotten soon after getting home. A vanilla ‘horror’ film that adds nothing to the genre. Don’t see it.
The Bye Bye Man review by Kat Hughes, January 2017.
The Bye Bye Man is in cinemas now.
