Released by the STX
Entertainment, the same company behind the bland and forgettable The Space Between Us, The Bye Bye Man is easily the worst
horror thriller to ensnare major talents unlucky enough to sign on board since Into the Grizzly Maze put Billy Bob
Thornton and a cartoonish looking CGI grizzly bear in the same scene
together. The title itself is silly
enough, but you haven’t seen the jumpy and often unintentionally funny car
accident of a film The Bye Bye Man
really is. Despite the titular demon
being played by famed character actor Doug Jones, the number of times the
filmmakers turned the volume up full blast and giving the characters reasonably
plausible backstories, The Bye Bye Man ultimately
remains bereft of scares. Even the
theater packed to the gills with moviegoers eager to check out the latest free
screening couldn’t take it seriously.
The movie itself concerns four
college kids who move into a house with a haunted past involving some sort of
demon known as The Bye Bye Man who
has a thing for possessing the tenants and sending them on serial killing
sprees. The catch is you can’t say or
think his name, much like the tagline on a movie poster that has already
immediately become the subject of internet meme parodies. The rest is a tone deaf slog through
half-hearted jump scares, a séance, sleuthing the origins of the local curse
and characters warning each other not to say the title of the film out loud.
The movie itself concerns four
college kids who move into a house with a haunted past involving some sort of
demon known as The Bye Bye Man who
has a thing for possessing the tenants and sending them on serial killing
sprees. The catch is you can’t say or
think his name, much like the tagline on a movie poster that has already
immediately become the subject of internet meme parodies. The rest is a tone deaf slog through
half-hearted jump scares, a séance, sleuthing the origins of the local curse
and characters warning each other not to say the title of the film out loud. Outside of the dependable electronic/ambient score by the Newton Brothers who are accustomed to doing this kind of Blumhouse fare, most of The Bye Bye Man has no business being in theaters. Straight to video horror fans might be able to get through it, but it lacks big screen presence. Despite moody visuals lensed by Annabelle cinematographer James Kniest, there's a DIY cheapness permeating the thing which doesn't bode well for the revered monster movie icon Doug Jones' onscreen appearances.
Poor Doug Jones, who was once
the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth, is now
stuck looking a bit like William Sadler’s Grim Reaper from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey on heroin with a flayed CG rendered
terror dog from Ghostbusters at his
side. Poor Carrie Ann Moss and Faye
Dunaway, two overqualified actresses who were once doing A-list Hollywood
movies now trapped in The Bye Bye Man. Poor Douglas Smith of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, a gifted and prolific television
actor, struggles with abrupt character transitions that are intended to yank
the rug from underneath the viewer but instead elicited chuckles from much of
the audience in attendance.
In the past year, the multiplexes saw and unfortunately will continue to see an onslaught of demonic possession horror movies. Two of the best ones, The Wailing and Demon, came from Europe. A good one came out in America with The Conjuring 2. Sadly most of the rest fall into the latter category of run-of-the-mill exploitation cheapies with some virtues that ultimately amount to less than a sum of their parts. While this doesn’t quite scrape the deep bottom of the barrel that something like, say, Nocturne or Incarnate, it leaps around so much with little connective tissue holding it together than by the time the overqualified cast members make their cameos to cash their paychecks, we just feel sorry for them.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki