*Originally written January 19th, 2017*
"Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't watch it"
I'm not sure about the UK, because we get the dropped off Oscar potentials after their US release date in January, but in America, January is the famous dump month of films the studio have no faith in so they shove them in January with little to no advertisement to die. It was pretty easy to see why The Bye Bye Man fitted this category.
The Bye Bye Man is one of the lamest, boring and most generic horror films I've seen in quite some time. It reminded me a little of 2015's 'The Gallows' an equally lazy and terrible horror film that was quickly forgotten.
Despite being a 'Dark' and 'Violent' horror film and being rated a 15. This was butchered due to its poor editing to conceal the violence. The kills are choppy and laughable, everything cuts away in order to keep its PG-13 rating in the US, which just lacks any impact. There's a scene early on where a woman gets shot close range with a shotgun and there's not a single drop of blood. Only a smear of black stuff on the wall behind her. What?
On top of the lazy editing, the performances are laughable. Aside from one surprise appearance from Carrie-Ann Moss, every cast member is a nobody who will go nowhere based on this. The delivery of their lines only added to some of the unintentional comedy.
Speaking of unintentional comedy. Due to the 'Bye Bye Man's' powers, he creates images that only appear to the characters he's affecting. Some of these things range from terrible CGI maggots crawling on a face, people banging (Shying away from showing it to the camera of course) and in one case having a police officer wink at you in a particularly awkward and hilarious moment.
What makes The Bye Bye Man so frustrating is the lack of what we find out about him. We only really learn what he does to people rather than why and how, which would be fine if what was happening wasn't so terrible. I don't mind a generic horror film as long as it's competent (Look at The Conjuring). All we learn about The Bye Bye Man is that he's curse that effects everyone that's heard his name, oh and he looks like a scarred Albino that is followed by a bright red hell-hound of a dog that looks like something from a PS1 game.
That's The Bye Bye Man, a lame, boring and generic horror film that earns its spot in the January dumping ground of garbage. It's only January, but my god, I will be shocked if we get a worse horror film in 2017 than The Bye Bye Man.
1/10 Dans
The Bye Bye Man is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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