When three college students move into an old house off campus, they unwittingly unleash a supernatural entity known as The Bye Bye Man, who comes to prey upon them once they discover his name. The friends must try to save each other, all the while keeping The Bye Bye Man’s existence a secret to save others from the same deadly fate.
An OK horror movie with a stupid title.
Let’s address the biggest issue I had with the movie. The title sucks. The name of our antagonist sucks. “The Bye Bye Man” would seem to indicate that this paranormal being preys on children. Which, he does not. So, why the name? No idea except perhaps to give this child-predator sounding title a more menacing presence? “Oh No, Won’t someone think of the children??” It’s misleading, lazy and really dumb.
The BBM’s hell hound is just weird.. and obviously computer generated. Really looked bad.
The other issue I had was the performance by Cressida Bonas as Sasha. Dull, lifeless and uninspired.. I know there’s a tendency for young actors (This is only her 2nd role, according to IMBD) to over-act, but geeze, put some feeling into it, will ya?
Less is more, when it comes to horror. I don’t want to know everything. It’s a problem with recent horror movies.. but in this case, we got Nothing. Who is the BBM? How long has he been around? Where did he come from? What’s with the hound? Why does he drop silver dollars? I dont want it all spelled out, but give me something to work with.
You attract BBM by saying his name. OK So.. what if you’re just wishing your bro a good night? “Bye bye, man”. does that count? Hell, I’ve said that three times in the last week. This entity should be popping up all over the place, in a college town.
I read online reviews claiming that BBM was a rip off of Candyman. No, I didnt see it that way at all. I mean, there’s a number of urban legends which require you to call the name of your supernatural killer. Bloody Mary, Candyman, Charlie Charlie, Zozo, etc., so no – I just dont see a direct rip off here.
To be completely honest, in my opinion, the Bye Bye Man could have been left out of the movie entirely.. had no physical presence, and it would have served to boost the creepiness of the overall results. The character design is, well, boring.. a pale man with a scarred face, wearing a hooded jacket. That’s it. The jacket wasn’t even very good looking, he may as well shown up in a sweatshirt.
So, in closing.. it was pretty good, but that title just has to go. If a sequel is in the works, I would hope more information could be uncovered.. though given the nature of the story, I don’t think that they can uncover anything else.
What do you mean? Well, there is no way to stop the BBM from getting you, but, just like in The Ring and It Follows, you can prevent BBM from being passed to another victim, and that is to not talk about it.
Shit.. I’ve said too much.
