A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of seeing The
Bye Bye Man, this year’s PG-13 horror movie that gets thrown into the
early-January dump. First, I have to say that I needed to take these few days since
seeing it to really think on the film and let it settle in my mind. Right off
the bat I feel I should explain that the movie is not very good. I know that much
to be true. It is by no means well made. The plot is filled with inconsistencies,
the dialogue is awful, the shots are poorly composed, and the editing doesn’t
help with any of this. Whatever they were trying to do, the people who made
this movie did not execute it well. Now, though, we’ve reached my central
problem: I don’t know what these people were trying to do.
While it is not a well-made movie, it’s still entirely
entertaining. In all honesty, I cannot remember the last time a movie made me laugh
as hard and as consistently as I did during The Bye Bye Man. It’s
truly hilarious. And the thing is, I don’t think I’m being mean in saying that.
This didn’t feel like the kind of laugh you get from a so-bad-it’s-good movie
like The
Room or something. This was genuine, uproarious laughter from an entire
audience at moments that felt like they were being played for humor. That’s the
puzzle. This teen-slasher horror film isn’t the least bit scary, it has dozens
of technical errors and plot holes, it’s filled with wall-to-wall laughs, and
yet it’s being marketed as an intense thriller? Clearly that doesn’t make
sense, and thus my days of contemplation.
Is this truly a god-awful mess of a horror movie, or is The
Bye Bye Man actually a hilarious dark-comedy that is littered with
technical and script mistakes?
The film centers on Elliot, his girlfriend Sasha, and his
best friend John. We learn that these are their relationships because they
frequently and bluntly explain their backstories to each other, as one does
with their friends. The trio has just moved into a big spooky house off campus,
where they pass the time by having expository conversations and exploring the
basement alone. We discover that Elliot’s bedside table has the film’s tagline
(“don’t think it, don’t say it”) written over and over inside of its drawer,
covering the name of the film’s antagonist “The Bye Bye Man.” Elliot thinks
nothing of this at first, but Sasha is concerned and invites her psychic friend
over to a house party to get a read on the creepy energy of their new place. It
should also be noted that during this already plot heavy scene, Elliot’s
brother Virgil arrives with his young daughter to give the characters advice
and further explain their motivations. While the two brothers are talking, the
little girl wanders around this college house party alone to look into spooky
closets and find more jump scares. Again, this is either an attempt at being
kind of surreal and funny, or a cry for help from the computer that wrote this screenplay.
Either way, it’s all pretty hilarious and was met with tons of laughter.
Once the other guests have left, the three roommates and the
Goth psychic stock character have a séance, where we are once again reminded of
the film’s title character, and his approaching spookiness. Sasha is frightened,
but Elliot and John remain skeptical and ignore her warnings. It’s then that
the movie seemingly skips several scenes and now focuses on Elliot’s insistence
that they are all being hunted down by the Bye Bye Man, who will get inside
their heads and turn them against each other. While this information is accurate
in how the plot winds up working, the movie didn’t allow the characters to come
to this information at a natural pace. I genuinely sat in the theater wondering
if somehow they jumped ahead in the movie by accident. Nope. This is just the
movie. This insane movie.
It should be noted that we are never given a clear explanation
as to what The Bye Bye Man is, or why he’s called that, or where his power comes
from, or why he wants to kill them, or why his name can’t be spoken, or pretty
much anything about how any of this works. We’re just told not to speak or
think his name, and that he’s followed around by an incredibly silly CGI
Hell-Hound, and then we’re expected to blindly accept all of this.
The film then falls into a series of nonsensical sketches
about the spooky things that the Bye Bye Man makes you see and do, each more
hilarious than the last. We get Sasha’s monotone conversation about her haunted
table with the campy flower shop owner who sold them the house. We see a conversation
between Eliot and a librarian (who without spoiling anything, gets the best
scene in the movie towards the end) in which they discuss how you shouldn’t say
the villain’s name in a conversation that name-drops him about a dozen times.
Then we’re shown Elliot’s apparently drugged-up rendition of the Everly
Brothers song “Bye Bye Love” which
seems to be randomly inserted into the middle the movie with no setup or
payoff. It just keeps building off of its own insanity, eventually peaking with
a character’s sudden train-based splatter death.
My favorite exchange, however, happens right before the film’s
climax, where one character seeks out another for advice in how to conquer the
monster. There’s a solemn, heartfelt scene between the two that ends in the
character calming stating that they can offer the best piece of advice for
dealing with the situation:
“Just kill yourself. Kill everyone who knows about this, and
then kill yourself.”
Which, when delivered like a Bob Saget speech at the end of a
Full
House episode (as was the case here), might be the funniest thing I’ve
ever seen in a movie.
Once again, I really can’t tell if it’s a joke or not, and
it’s kind of maddening.
If I had to give some credit to the horror of The
Bye Bye Man, it would have to be for its climactic battle against the
titular antagonist. It actually has a couple moments in it that are kind of
creepy and well executed, so I guess there’s that. However, the film can’t help
but take that decent tonal moment out back and shoot it in the face, as it ends
on one of the worst scenes I’ve ever seen a movie go out on. Without exaggeration,
the film ends by openly acknowledging its own lack of logic and then having the
precious five year old from earlier basically say a cutesy catch phase. The
climax was the only moment I was almost scared by, and then they ended with
more silliness. What are you, movie?
If the creative team behind The Bye Bye Man does come
forward and explains that this movie was supposed to be an attempt at some kind
of absurdist dark-comedy, then okay. I’ll honestly believe that, and feel a
little more comfortable in recommending this movie to my friends. However, if
it turns out that the humor is in fact unintentional, then this movie is an
artifact of insanity. That would mean that an entire team of people came together
and made these decisions without irony. They all put effort into this movie in
an attempt to be scary, because this is what they all agreed fear looks like.
Unfortunately, I must ultimately recognize that I am
probably giving the filmmakers too much credit. While it would be great to
discover that this is some subversive alt-comedy stunt, the truth of the matter
is that this is a teen-centered horror movie dropped in January. Very little
effort is put into the majority of those kinds of films, and that’s probably
the case here, too. If this is supposed to be a horror movie, it is a miserable,
dizzying failure. If it is supposed to be a dark-comedy, it also didn’t really
succeed, since I have to question if it was supposed to be a joke in the first
place. So either way, we lose. Regardless, teens seeking jump-scares will see
this and be perfectly satisfied with its mediocrity. The only silver lining I
can see is that we will probably never be given an answer as to whether or not
this is a joke, and so, for years to come, fans of truly absurd comedy will
have this gem of a movie to watch late at night with their buddies.
If you want either your teenage jump-scare fix or a truly
mind-boggling joke, I would actually enthusiastically recommend the madness
that is The Bye Bye Man. As for everyone else, if you’re looking for a
genuine horror film, avoid this movie like the plague that it is.
Rating: 2 out of 5
