The Bye Bye Man (2017) | A memetic emetic I wish I could forget.

 "Elliot: You really want to know. You really think the truth honesty is the best policy 

Dt. Shaw: I do / When wouldn't it be?

Elliot: What if you say the worst crime scene ever? A mass murder at a school with dead bodies and brains and students and sneakers with blood on them. You go home and your kids say 'tell us about your day mommy'

You could be honest you could tell the truth you could describe every awful nightmare thing you saw and what was burned into your head would be burned into their heads forever or you could hug them tight and spare them your honest truth.  

What would you do?" 

The Bye Bye Man is a horror film based on the chapter "The Bridge to Body Island" from the book The President's Vampire by Robert Schneck. It was directed by Stacy Title and written by Jonathan Penner. It was produced by STXfilms, H. Brothers, Tang Media Productions, and Intrepid Pictures. It is available on Netflix. The Bye Bye Man features the acting talents of Douglas Smith(Elliot), Lucien Laviscount (John), Cressida Bonas (Sasha), Doug Jones (The Bye Bye Man), Carrie-Anne Moss (Detective Shaw). For a Full List of Cast and Crew.

I was recently watching a trailer for 2020's The Empty Man which reminded me of the last time I was disappointed by an adaptation in theaters, Slenderman(2018) this in turn reminded me of the originator of creepypasta-esque boogeyman the Bye Bye Man. Now, historically, the titular villain is not the first creepypasta style slasher to grace the screen, (the firsts would be Midnight Man(2016) and Always Watching:A Marble Hornets Story (2015), (which was based on the unfiction web series which in turn adapted the Slenderman Mythos)) and if we are being really honest the beginning of a urban legend character being spread memetically would go to the absolute stunner of a film Candyman(1992). That being said The Bye Bye Man epitomizes the concept of hollywood trying to capitalize on the imaginative horror of the online creepypasta with modern day hookmans with little imagination and shoddy plot. Before I get into the meat of my review let me just say this. The Bye Bye Man has a surprisingly good premise and there are definitely ways the story could of have been told to capitalize on the concept. That being said the poor acting and nonsensical plot fed into a rather lackluster execution that isn't even bad in a good laugh-with-your-friends B movie way it's just bad. 

But enough of that let me explain as we get into...

The Good Stuff

The movie cold opens with a flashback to the 70s as a man stalks a suburban neighborhood with a shotgun in what is a clear psychotic break. He mumbles to himself to "don't think it, don't say it" as he breaks down a screaming woman's door. Before we can dwell on this fact we cut to the present day where we meet our three main protagonists Nerd, Jock, and Skirt oh i'm sorry I meant *quickly looks up the IMDB page* I meant Elliot(Douglas Smith), John(Lucien Laviscount), and Sarah (Cressinda Bonas). None of the characters have any depth to the point that its hard to describe them even as cliches as it would imply the where characterized enough to fall into an archetype. Long Story Short our mystery gang rents a large 2 story house on their college student income, (this is my opinion is still one of the most unrealistic things I have ever seen in a film), and find some crazy writing on the liner of a mid century modern nightstand. That night they have a SPOOPY seance with their hot goth friend (Jenna Kanell). During there fun night of parlor games Elliot decides to just say the name of that totally not a eldritch demon and gets him and his friend group haunted by some 14 year olds Edgy Creepypasta OC. I'm sorry that's unfair calling The Bye Bye Man a creepypasta OC implies that he actually has a personality or a backstory or any characterization in the slightest which he does not. The Bye Bye Man is nothing more than an obnoxious Mary Sue who does nothing more than stand in the corners of rooms and apparently give people psychotic breaks in the most uninspired way possible. 

All sarcasm aside The Bye Bye Man doesn't have a plot. It has a bunch of generic flat characters who run around being chased by an equally flat antagonist. The screenwriters will throw details at you like old timey coins and trains and never explain how or why it ties into the plot. This movie fails on every fundamental level to create a satisfying supernatural slasher flick and it honestly feels like it cribbed ideas from many much better horror films. The "Horror" aspect is also poorly managed with Jump Scares that barely hit and scenes which had the promise of a horrific situation but immediately pulled the character out of danger before any tension can be built. Overall the writing of the film was boring, unoriginal, and tired. 

It comes with a depressing amount of irony that the best acting was done by side characters. I don't expect much from films like The Bye Bye Man in terms of acting but to say that there roles where underacted is an understatement. Many of the "Emotional" scenes in the film where met with outright apathy because not only was there not characterization from the script but the characters came off with zero personality. I didn't realize how awful the acting was in this film until I watched the interview scene with Detective Shaw (Carrie-Anne Moss), her stellar performance shined as a beacon as I had forgotten for the past hour that people can convey emotions using their face and body language. Besides Carrie-Anne Moss, I would like to use this time to commend Jenna Kanell, Leigh Whannell, and Michael Trucco for doing the best they can with the characters they were giving and to also silently judge Doug Jones's talent agent.  

Cinematography was done by James Kniest with the scoring performed by the Newton Brothers. Overall I have no complaints with the technical direction of the film. The camerawork was fluid and the special effects where well done. The music worked for the scenes and all in all the technical direction was well polished. 

The Bye Bye Man is a travesty that is only made worse by the encouragement it has given to other producers to make straid, tired horror movies. Poor Acting, a mostly absent plot, and shallow characterization bring together a blasse movie I wish I could forget.