4.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
When three college students move into an old house off campus, they unwittingly unleash a supernatural entity known as The Bye Bye Man, who comes to prey upon them once they discover his name. The friends must try to save each other, all the while keeping The Bye Bye Man's existence a secret to save others from the same deadly fate.
Starring: Douglas Smith (VI), Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas, Doug Jones, Michael TruccoHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 40% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
2018
Extended Cut
2015
Collector's Edition
1986
2015
2015
Unrated Theatrical and Rated Versions
2013
2013
Gritos en la noche / Screams in the Night
1962
Hardcover
1989
2012
2016
2018
2014
1986
2016
Warner Archive Collection
1981
2013
Collector's Edition
2003
2019
Director's Cut
1986