The Bye
Bye Man (2017)
IMDb
genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Stacy
Title
Writer: Jonathan
Penner
Starring: Douglas
Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas
OK I promise I’m not a hipster
but a lot of my movie opinions this month seem to be going against the grain
and this one’s no exception; I feel it has been unfairly written off. Is it
perfect? No, but I don’t think every movie has to be if it’s entertaining.
When the movie started with three
two-dimensional teenagers moving into an obviously haunted house I thought I
knew what I was in for and I’d definitely be rooting for the bad guy. However,
I was pleasantly surprised that there was enough time in between scares spent
on the characters themselves so they become worth watching not just to see them
picked off. In a movie centred around personal fears we should get to see
inside the characters’ heads and, at least with the main cast, this movie pulls
that off.
There is the obvious comic
relief character but she provides a welcome, if brief, respite in a film packed
with some very effective jump scares. These provide the majority of the scares
during the film rather than scares that stick with you, which is probably why
it’s been criticised, but personally the more I thought about it afterwards the
scarier it got to the point that I was scared to say the name for a couple of
days!
Another highlight are the
scenes with Leigh Whannell, not only does he act his scenes perfectly but there’s
a clear choice to have these scenes in bright light and high colour which act
as a fantastic contrast to the more human horror shown and the darkness of the
majority of the main scenes.
As I said at the beginning
though, it isn’t perfect so here come the negatives. The look of the Bye Bye
Man is revealed too early in my opinion, a mistake made in many horror films,
as it removes the majority of the suspense. It’s surprising then that so much
else surrounding the villain himself is left unanswered; there’s obvious
patterns to his ‘haunting’, for lack of a better word, but the reason behind
them goes unexplained. There’s also a few others moments which feel like they’re
building to a payoff that never arrives. This deliberate withholding of
information plus the forced tacked-on ending feel like desperation for a
sequel. I know this is common in horror movies but it doesn’t get any less
annoying and maybe make sure the first one is really solid first please?
General Opinion:
Sort the ending out and give me some answers but still well
worth a watch.
Scare Factor:
Reliant on jump scares but they’re done well and the idea
is solid and stuck with me for a few days.
Gore:
I’d have liked a little more gore but it is used
effectively in a few scenes.
Clowns:
There’s a couple of great comic relief scenes but it’s more
focused on the horror.
The Bye Bye Man is currently in UK cinemas.
