MicroReview: The Bye Bye Man (2017)

Three friends stumble upon the horrific origins of a mysterious figure they discover is the root cause of the evil behind unspeakable acts.

Review

The handling of The Bye Bye Man was problematic. Director Stacy Title (Hood of Horror) hadn't directed in ten years, and didn't have much experience before that. Although, she had some great ideas - just not necessarily the ability to pull them off. The writers Robert Damon Schneck (debut) and Jonathan Penner (Let the Devil Wear Black - who btw, hadn't written another screenplay in fourteen years) lack experience - and it shows. It doesn't bode well to have such little establishment behind the camera. Of the three leads, Douglas Smith (Terminator Genisys) is the only one with much big screen experience. Lucien Laviscount (Between Two Worlds) is a Brit TV actor trying to break Hollywood and Cressida Bonas (Doctor Thorne) has only two other credits to her name. So not much in front of the camera either.

It's a shame because in much smaller roles were Faye Dunaway and Carrie-Anne Moss. Totally wasted.

Worse still, author Schneck claims it to be based on a true story - that of a blind albino born in 1920's Louisiana, who, with his demon dog Gloomsinger (made from sewn together bits of his victims brought to life) traveled on trains, hobo-like, murdering people left and right. Which is a much better sounding film.

In this there is no back story to the Bye Bye Man at all. The history goes back to 1969 and some kid saying the Bye Bye Man made me do it. But at least having researched the film I know why there were so many train metaphors in the film.

Yeah. I should have to research films to make them make sense.

Sadly the film has way too many plot holes, the acting is sub-par, writing and direction leave a great deal to be desired, and worse, it's just not scary. It's also pretty uninspired, and uninteresting. An irredeemably poor attempt.