The Bye Bye Man is not that bad! (And neither is The Dark Tower)

The Bye Bye Man is not as awful as the critics made it out to be - so let's talk about it!

THE BYE BYE MAN 2017

 Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it.

Look, I fell for it too - back when this movie first came out in January, everyone was jumping on the hype train and hating on this movie. So I just went with it and didn't bother to watch it. But over the past few months I've been making a conscious effort to form my own opinions on films and not jump into the circle jerk of it all.

Most recently I saw The Dark Tower in theaters, which is getting destroyed by critics and fans. As readers of this blog will know - I am a MASSIVE Stephen King fan and have read all his books, a lot of them multiple times. I saw The Dark Tower and had a really great time. It's exciting, it's fast paced, the gunslinger scenes are awesome, Idris Elba is a damn powerhouse, and while I wasn't a huge fan of Matthew Mcconaughey, it didn't ruin anything for me.

So please, I'm begging you, King fans and non-King fans, if you've read the books or you haven't, go see The Dark Tower or rent it when it comes out on DVD. It's a super fun, exciting ride and while it's not a perfect (or even close) adaptation, it holds its own.

Anyway, the point of that derail is that I've decided to make a conscious effort to make my own decisions on films - even if they're rated like 5% on RT or whatever, I may still like it!

Which leads me to The Bye Bye Man which recently popped up on Canadian Netflix!

Directed by Stacy Title and written by her husband Jonathan Penner, who was also on one of my favorite seasons of Survivor, the story is based on a chapter from the book The President's Vampire by Robert Damon Schneck. Apparently this book is about real supernatural events that happened in America.

This movie follows three college students who rent a big old house off campus and discover some old coins in an old dresser that then lead them into a terrifying real life nightmare involving someone called The Bye Bye Man.

The film's lead, Elliot, is played by Douglas Smith, who does a great job of slowly sinking into madness. Once he learns the mystery of The Bye Bye Man he realizes that he can't speak it, think it, or say the name or it gives this entity power. His girlfriend, Sasha, is played by Cressida Bonas. While I'm sure she's a wonderful actor, I was actually quite disappointed in Sasha's role in this movie which seemed to be mostly just sleeping a lot and saying maybe three words. The third player is John, Elliot's best friend, played by Lucien Laviscount (who you might recognize from Scream Queens). He did a really good job, and while his character wasn't completely fleshed out, he made it interesting at least.

Carrie-Anne Moss plays the Detective, and she's amazing as always! And Doug Jones plays the Bye Bye Man himself, Jones is of course famous for playing lots of spooky roles like the Ancient in The Strain, the ghost in Crimson Peak, and one of the Gentlemen in the scariest episode of Buffy EVER - Hush. 

The story was twisty and turny and I liked that, the Bye Bye Man plays tricks on those he's haunting, he makes them see things that aren't there. So for a lot of the movie while all is being revealed to you, it's fun to try and figure out what is a trick or not.

The backstory was good too, I like that it kind of leaves it up to you to think about how long the Bye Bye Man has been in existence. We see a lot of flashbacks from 1969 which help pull the story along.

When the Bye Bye Man is finally revealed, it does rely quite heavily on some not so great CG for some of it, but it still does give off a creepy effect. He's very imposing and kind of looks like the fisherman from I Know What You Did Last Summer. 

Overall I think this movie got a bad rep for nothing. While it isn't ground breaking or anything new, and it does have its' flaws and some not so well thought out characters, it does its' job. For the casual horror viewer I think they would find the jump scares and spooky vibe effective. I wasn't bored once, and I had a great time watching it.

7/10

Stay Spooky! And don't let those critics sway your view!