Sin against others and The Bye Bye Man will come to get you. People commit unthinkable acts every day. Time and again, we grapple to understand what drives a person to do such terrible things. But what if all of the questions we’re asking are wrong? What if the cause of all evil is not a matter of what…but who? From the producer of Oculus and The Strangers comes The Bye Bye Man, a chilling horror-thriller that exposes the evil behind the most unspeakable acts committed by man. When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don’t think it, don’t say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control. Is there a way to survive his possession? The Bye Bye Man is directed by Stacy Title, and is rated PG-13 for terror, horror violence, bloody images, sexual content, thematic elements, partial nudity, some language and teen drinking.

If you seek a horror movie that is as equally entertaining as it is informative on providing all of the answers in closing up each and every plot hole created in its screenplay, then The Bye Bye Man is the movie that you should stay the furthest away from. After being on the shelf for close to a year, this film has been the subject of much negativity online, from its over-the-top trailers to its embarrassing, awful title that couldn’t be anymore practical if it was called “The Man Who Kills People”. Being a critic, I am subjected to so many awful horror movies and January movies, so when they combine their powers, they make for something truly special. The problem certainly isn’t going to be me thinking or saying The Bye Bye Man, the problem is going to be trying to forget that this movie ever subjected its audience to something rudimentary in terms of filmmaking that it truly astonishes me how this ever got a big screen release. The Bye Bye Man is an anomaly of sorts in the way it seems to complicate a genre that is certainly nothing challenging in terms of creating enjoyable entertainment in popcorn thrills. The film isn’t remotely scary, even in the simplest idea of jump scares, it has a very contrived and confusing screenplay, and it feels ten years too late for the 8 Films You Could Die For muck that plagued our screens many moons ago.

First of all there’s the antagonist himself; The Bye Bye Man. With a character as cryptic and mysterious as this one, surely there’s some kind of backstory that really brings the story all together and makes his pain relatable, right? WRONG. Considering he is in the movie completely at around 4-5 minutes, I am not embellishing in the slightest when I say we learn absolutely nothing about him. Imagine in A Nightmare on Elm Street we learn nothing in eight movies about Freddy Krueger. On top of that, the very concept and execution in idea for us to not say his name or think about him is not only a rip-off of the movie that I just mentioned, but also one of Candyman, Boogeyman and any other horror movie that homage their genre much better than this one. So on top of knowing nothing about him after 91 minutes, is his presence worth something? I honestly couldn’t tell you. Considering he only stays on screen for more than five seconds at the very end of the movie, it feels like introducing a new character to a movie that is supposed to be centered around him. Origins? Well apparently this force that we don’t know where or how it started plagued the mind of a man in the 70’s and he killed everyone around him who he told about The Bye Bye Man, so to end the spreading of it. This doesn’t seem like a difficult solution, but people throughout this movie repeatedly keep bringing him up. To say that this is the dumbest collection of characters that I have endured in quite some time, is underplaying it even from a horror standpoint. These kids deserve everything they are getting.

Then there’s the very presentation of this flub. The only positive point that I am giving this movie is at least the locations of Eastern Ohio certainly more than give off that eerie feeling of something chilly and demented in the air. The house that most of this movie centers around is hauntingly majestic, omitting a kind of tragedy in the air that plagues the air of our cast. Beyond that, this presentation feels very hollow and empty for a finished product. I always negate a movie for too many jump scares, but I actually feel like this one doesn’t have enough for the teenagers rushing out to see it. There were three attempts in the movie at jump scares, all of which missed their mark, and none of which merited any concept of their inclusion in the script. For 91 dull minutes, the film feels like it focused on making a movie but forgot the scares that justified its genre designation. We go long spans without our boogeyman or an attempt at creeping out the audience that a dread of underwhelming cant help but make its way into your tasting of all it’s worth. The ending is confusing based on the rules it set up, and it feels predictable based on the idea that the only way to stop this monster is to simply forget about him. A concept that is so difficult to understand for our cast that they repeatedly poke the beast with a stick that will eventually bite back.

Speaking of that cast, with the exception of Carrie Anne Moss, this is an entirely fresh cast and crew of new faces, some of which making their initial impressions on their audience. This isn’t a surprise in the slightest because their deliveries and emotional release is lacking in so many scenes throughout. It’s not entirely their faults. These kids had little to work with in terms of character direction or depth in dialogue to boot, so it always feels like the wrong person is in control of theirs and the movie’s respective fates. There’s an actress in this movie whose real name is Cressida Bonas, and I certainly mean no personal harm to her career, but maybe acting classes could help her in emoting whatever range she is trying to accomplish. Her underwhelming release and shaky dialogue reads ruined more than one scene for me, and in an environment full of terrible actors and actresses, she undoubtedly takes the cake. Everybody always feels bored throughout this movie, and I can certainly understand that. When no answers are given, it feels like the cast is constantly moving in circles through repetitive setups and finishes, so how many times can you honestly expect them to remain patient before the whole thing tastes stale? And stale it definitely feels about twenty minutes in.

The dreaded PG-13 tag for horror also strikes again, as there’s very little blood or gore anywhere in this movie. What’s made even more apparent is how much this movie left off of the table to achieve that cheap rating. There are gun-shot wounds to the head and torso in the movie, and yet not one drop of blood splashes the walls or floor of the respective areas. I’m not saying that PG-13 horror can’t be a success. There are more than a few examples of those ratings that constantly raise the bar so well that it’s hard to believe they were ever PG-13 in the first place. The problem here is logic always wins out, and the feeling of an empty void is obvious early on in the movie, when computer generation takes away any chance at quenching the thirst. This is clearly a victim of a hack-and-slash in the editing department visually, but it didn’t have to suffer for the sins of a company that wanted something less. There’s just no effort or logistics for what they produce, and because of that you’ll never feel even slightly invested in any way for this picture.

The Bye Bye Man is dreaded January cinema that like its central character should never be mentioned or thought about ever again for the safety of moviegoers alike. It’s a dry hour-and-a-half of empty brutality and thrills that never come close to even scaring the softies in the audience. Held together by uninspiring performances or any kind of narrative for its villain, the movie feels like the very definition of the term “Not trying”, and the evidence feel assured from a title that is anything but creative. Bye bye indeed, and good riddance.

2/10