Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Bye Bye Man Blu-ray Movie Review

'N SYNC's favorite Horror film.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 10, 2017

Here's an interesting thought exercise: say there's something someone doesn't want to remember. What's the best way to forget it? Oh, right, WRITE REMINDERS ABOUT IT EVERYWHERE! The premise of The Bye Bye Man is that there's a boogeyman who will appear if one even thinks about him, never mind just speak his name, Candyman style. A least that villain gave some leeway to his would-be victims. Think about him all day. Just don't stand in front of a mirror and say his name five times. That's a fairly deliberate and easily avoidable action. Not here. The mere act of thinking about him does the trick. So the smart way to avoid thinking about him, according to the movie, is to write "don't think it, don't say it" on every available surface...right? Whatever. It's a brainless movie, an empty Horror picture with no redeeming value or creativity, except, of course, for its introduction of the surefire method to forget something by making it the centerpiece of one's life.

Elliot (Douglas Smith), his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas), and his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) are college students who move into an old house near the school. It has its plusses and minuses. It's a creepy old place with bad pipes and in need of some work, but it's good enough for their needs. Unfortunately, it's also a danger zone. As Sasha mysteriously falls ill, Elliot finds strange writings: "don't think it, don't say it" and comes across the name "The Bye Bye Man." He and John begin to experience disturbing hallucinations. Elliot works to solve the mystery of what's happening, leading him, and his friends, down a dark and deadly path towards a date with The Bye Bye Man.

It's obvious that The Bye Bye Man is intended to be some spin on the A Nightmare on Elm Street style in which the deepest thoughts and recesses of the mind serve as the battleground between good and evil. The title character is a manipulator of the mind who creates intense (and often crafted by way of bad CGI) hallucinations meant to make the victim murder someone, either out of rage (a best friend sleeping with the victim's girlfriend) or out of pity (a woman caught ablaze and suffering a painful death). Or something along those lines. The movie is so inanely developed, so narratively trite, so structurally derivative, so poorly performed that it doesn't always make much sense. But that seems to be the general idea. That's where the "thinking" part comes in. Think his name, and those powers are manifested and multiplied. Maybe that's why the movie is so confounding: make it to where it doesn't make sense and it'll be easier to forget. Don't think it, don't say it...DRAT!

Beyond its "idea" is a terribly uninspired Horror movie. Truly, this one has it all: teenagers in peril, the creepy old house, a tale of past grisly murders, a boogeyman, strange happenings, mysterious sounds, odd scribblings, a "catchy" phrase, a seance, classic jump scares, creepy images of maggots falling out of people's eyes, a bloody hellhound, hallucinations. It's an amalgamation of pretty much every Horror staple in the book, all of which, at one point or another, have been used to excellent effect, and all of which, at other times (and more than one can count), have been used to ill effect. Somehow, The Bye Bye Man manages to mess them all up. Even as the film starts strong -- a slickly made and unnerving murder spree -- it fades quickly as it builds on cliché after cliché, dumbing it all down and barely finding a common theme and point of attachment, never mind doing something, anything, interesting with the material on hand.

And the performances...good gosh almighty, the performances. Again, the film starts off well. The dependable Leigh Whannell captures a deranged essence as a man on a murder spree, balancing purpose and insanity remarkably well. Add in a fairly slick visual accompaniment and it makes for a quality start to the film. But it's seriously downhill from there. The trio of leads -- Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, and Cressida Bonas -- struggle even with basic emotive qualities, failing to define the characters or express their unease or fear of the world they inhabit. Bonas is particularly dreadful, delivering a stupefyingly numb performance as Elliot's love interest. The character is an empty shell, seems to have no soul, and is defined not by a robotic performance but rather as if every last ounce of life has been sucked out of her and all that remains is a malleable shell of a human being. It would be impossible to deliberately act this poorly.

The Bye Bye Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Bye Bye Man's 1080p transfer impresses all around, even as the film goes rather cold and dark for long stretches. The opening flashback to the late 1960s represents the film's best segment. Details are excellent, including 60s attire and furnishings, grasses, house siding, skin, and wood and bluing on a shotgun. The image further impresses for the duration. The old house is appropriately moody, dull, and worn down, showcasing many interesting old textures to enjoy. Facial close-ups are intimately revealing, offering exquisite pore, stubble, and makeup details. Clothes are razor-sharp in-tight as well. Colors are well saturated within the film's visual context. It pushes a bit dark and cold in places, giving the image a mild gray push, but natural greens and other bright colors are impressively revealing. Black levels hold fairly deep, occasionally a little pale to reveal critical shadow detail, such as the title character lurking in the background. Skin tones are reflective of the film's color timing. Noise, banding, and other eyesores are kept to a barely noticeable minimum.

The Bye Bye Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Bye Bye Man's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack presents the film's active sound design very well. It's forceful and well detailed, mixing low end depth with expert placement and nuance. Even as the track is made of various stale, cliché sound elements, it's all pushed into the stage with quality width, depth, and detail. Shotgun blasts are satisfyingly concussive. Musical notes present widely with positive low end depth to darker music. Jump scares are sharp and intense, making natural use of the entire stage. The sound of a coin falling to the floor -- one of the film's key effects -- plays with excellent placement and detail, taking into account everything, it seems, including the surface on which it falls, the coin's size, even the height from which it falls. A train powers through the stage partway through and offers excellent power and full-stage presence Dialogue is clear, detailed, well positioned, and well prioritized throughout.

Note that the DVS track is not available with the unrated cut.

The Bye Bye Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Bye Bye Man contains no supplemental content. It does offer two cuts of the film, the Theatrical Version (1:36:24) and the Unrated Version (1:39:48). A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy are included with purchase.

The Bye Bye Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's amazing that The Bye Bye Man earned a theatrical release. It has "direct-to-video fodder" written all over it. Whether its brain-dead concept, inept acting, embracing of empty genre cliché, and, of course, the inane concept of forgetting something by writing reminders all over the place, the film is a total bomb with its only saving grace its opening minutes. Universal's Blu-ray is unsurprisingly devoid of extra content. Video and audio, however, are excellent. Skip it.