The Bye Bye Man

The Bye Bye Man (2017)

23% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 62 reviews)

Runtime: 100 minutes (I saw the unrated version)

Directed by: Stacy Title

Starring: Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas, Michael Trucco, Doug Jones

From: STX

Tuesday night I saw this poor movie; I am glad I did not see the theatrical version, which I understand is REAL bad. I explain why there is no real reason to see this below:

NOTE: I streamed the unrated version; as I understand this was originally shot with an R-rating in mind, I will presume this is closer to the filmmakers' true vision rather than what was released to the cineplex to much disdain and derision. That doesn't make this a good movie, though... just one that-and I never have seen the theatrical cut-is the preferred version if you must see this because you're a mark for Doug Jones, you like mind-altering horror, you preferred Cressida Bonas (people in the United States probably don't know it but she used to go out with Prince Harry; that relationship did not get as much press here as his current courtship with Meghan Markle, which I suppose is not a surprise given that Markle is an American) to who Harry is as present going out with.

A big problem with this film is that hardly any of the backstory is explained at all, and I don't know why. Not spoonfeeding everything to the audience is a good idea at all, but how about some intellection as to why Bye Bye does what he does? Instead, you have to seek out on your own the real life urban legend surrounding the character; of course there are several different variations I have come across, but in essence it's about a young Albino man who led a troubled existence and he ended up riding on a train from town to town, also appearing suddenly whenever his name is spoken or even thought of. He even created his own dog out of body parts of his victims, which is why that pooch looked so odd in the film. Terrible CG didn't help there either. So that explains some of Bye Bye's traits. As for the coins... I will venture a guess and say that the people who made this must love Harvey Dent.

Point is, I wish the urban legend would have been followed more closely rather than the nonsense we got here, which was three douchy college students renting an old house and via an incredibly contrived circumstance The Bye Bye Man is mentioned, meaning that he returns (come to think of it, that part is like Freddy Krueger; then again, this movie “borrows” from several different famous properties); the movie gives him various special powers, including... causing hallucinations, apparently giving someone an upper respiratory infection, and my favorite, causing erectile dysfunction. He does not do much, really, and you don't get to see much of Doug Jones or his hound, either. I can tell you that this movie is not scary at all, or even creepy.

This film is quite laughably bad, from the story to much of the acting to how logic is thrown out the window. I feel bad for both Carrie-Anne Moss and Faye Dunaway, but hopefully both were paid well for their small roles. At least this wasn't the biggest travesty I have seen in ages. The film beginning with the 60's garage rock song Psychotic Reaction was a pleasant surprise, even if it was a rather obvious sign of what the scene would be about. The ending is not preposterous nor does it come out of nowhere. At least this version had some gore and F-bombs and a tremendous shower curtain*, but there's really no need to ever see this drivel.

As I've said before, there are actual good horror movies out there from recent years that you can stream at places like Netflix or Amazon that are far more worth your time than this poppycock-one day I should compile a list to help people out-and those movies deserved a wide release more than this did.

* This shower curtain is only seen in one short scene near the beginning, but what an unexpected moment it was. It was a cartoon of a guy fishing in a lake, only he's naked from the waist down, and a yellow fish has “caught the worm”, but in the most vulgar sense! It was obvious this was not in the theatrical cut.