There is a constant flow of movies that are circulating in the world on a monthly basis, with some that have failed and others that were agreeable. Bye Bye Man could be called many things, but agreeable does not come to mind. From watching this movie, it can clearly be seen the plot line was not the focus of production.
When looking at the paper thin plot line of this movie, there was a glimmer of promise. The shortened plot goes as follows: three college students get their first house to rent. Spooky stuff goes down, like a door closing, a coin falling, mild noises, et cetera. One of them finds a nightstand with writing on it. The doof proceeds to say what was written, “Bye Bye Man.”
Saying the antagonist’s name, Bye Bye Man, draws him towards the person who spoke it. Thinking about him will also draw him nearer to the speaker, until he eventually catches up with them. A constant phrase that was repeated throughout the movies was: “Don’t say it, don’t think it.” This was the speaker’s attempt to get the Bye Bye Man’s name out of their head, but of course, this does nothing but make them look like fools. Also, when you repeatedly say, “Don’t say it,” then the “it” in question would be on your mind. Overall, counter effective.
Now, there was not a lack of talent when making this movie. One of the producers, Marc D. Evans, was also a producer in the movie Oculus. This movie did fairly well, with a gross of $27,689,474 in the USA. This film had similar aspects, mainly with the fragile nature of the mind. In both films, the main characters lose their control of their perceptions. Oculus was able to do this much better, and did not need to force a jump scare down your throat. Though that is to be expected, as Oculus was rated R, while Bye Bye Man was rated PG 13. This lower rating limited how the story could be told, but could not be fully blamed for the outcome.
The movie had many poor points, but there were areas that were done well. The trailer is what drew many in; however, it mainly showed all of the best parts of the movie. This includes the death of a character, and various jump scares. Opening week went well, earning $13,378,000, with a budget of around $7,400,000. The main thing that was wrong with the movie was the constant annoying jump scares. When things are starting to get boring, they decide to throw in a very loud noise. This could be directed towards anything, as simple as a door closing, or someone walking by.
As anyone can tell just by looking at the name of the movie, the end result of the film was poor. If the antagonist’s name was something even remotely scary, maybe this movie would have gone a little better. IMDb gave it a 3.8/10 while Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 27%. Overall, many people agree, the ending was less than satisfactory. They left the movie very open, as if to suggest a sequel. I was expecting much more, but by the end I was very let down.
Jordan Rust, Staff Reporter
