Synopsis: Three friends stumble upon the horrific origins of a mysterious figure they discover is the root cause of the evil behind unspeakable acts.
Don’t think it, don’t say it, don’t think it, don’t say it….and most importantly don’t watch it. The Bye Bye man is the latest, major dvd release from Universal directed by Stacy Title. It stars Douglas Smith as “Elliot” and Cressida Bonas as “Sasha”, two college love birds who decide to rent an off campus home with Elliot’s best friend “John” played by Lucien Lavis.
A midst the climax of the trio’s house-warming party one night, Elliot discovers old papers scribbled with the writing “don’t say it, don’t do it” in a bedroom nightstand which has the words “The Bye Bye Man” carved into its antiquities wood. As the party winds down, Sasha’s clairvoyant classmate “Kim” played Jenna Kanell, performs a séance to rid the new homeowners of any evil spirits as they settle into their new estate. Because you know, everyone has that one college friend that can conveniently communicate with the other side after you’ve rented a haunted home. As most paint-by-numbers, new school horror movies go, Kim proceeds with the séance only to discover an evil presence lurks within the frame of the home. As creepy things start occurring and the foursome try to suggest what might be attributed to the bizarre séance, Elliot utters the words “The Bye Bye Man” forever linking them and whoever they mention his name to for the rest of their short lives. The Bye Bye Man is unique in that he spreads his evil like a virus. Anyone exposed to his name is then infected with his evil and influenced to commit heinous acts to those around them. The Bye Bye Man never gets his hands dirty.
As Elliot, Sasha and John move on with life after strange housewarming party, they start to develop visions and hear strange sounds throughout the house. Sasha begins to become inexplicably ill and John develops a very uncomfortable attraction to our feverish maiden that makes Elliot less than comfortable. As Elliot becomes more and more curious about these visions and sounds, he begins research around town to discover the origin of The Bye Bye Man while unknowingly spreading the evil virus of terror to anyone who will listen to his panicky narrative.
Like a virus, the acting in this film made me nauseous. Perhaps the worst performance was by actress Cleo King as the librarian “Mrs. Watkins”. Luckily we are rewarded with a violent end to Mrs. Watkins. The only performances worth noting are the cameos by Carrie-Anne Moss as “Detective Shaw” and Faye Dunaway as “Widow Redmon”. Screenwriter Jonathon Penner’s script, based on Robert Damon Schneck’s book “The Presidents Vampire” is a paint-by-numbers horror fiasco that breathes little life or humor into an already limited visual yawner.
Off of the top of my head the only horror movies in which I am actually rooting for the protagonists to die more than the villain are the legendary Friday the 13th movies. Jason’s kill scenes are legendary and technically are the stars of those movies. The Bye Bye Man however, had me actually hoping that pretty much every character would meet their demise at the hands of each other. The only exception being Elliot’s niece played by child actress Erica Tremblay. I just can’t root for a kid to die no matter poorly she was directed. I’ll close this article by reiterating my opening. Don’t think it, don’t say it, don’t watch it.
3 stars out of 10
