The Bye Bye Man

Plot

In 1969, a mass murder occurs in which a man kills people on his block. As he shoots the neighbors, he continuously asks if anyone spoke about "the name" which cannot be said. He also repeats the same thing over and over: "Don't say it, don't think it; don't think it, don't say it."

In present day, Elliot, his girlfriend Sasha, and best friend John move into an off-campus house not far from their college. Soon, mysterious things start to happen, such as Sasha developing a strange cough and Elliot finding coins in a nightstand that continually reappear. Elliot also finds writing consisting of "don't think it, don't say it", and a name: the Bye Bye Man. During a seance involving their friend Kim, the name is mentioned.

Sasha continues to become sick as Elliot and John start experiencing hallucinations and stranger activity. Elliot begins to suspect that Sasha is cheating on him with John. Elliot's brother Virgil also becomes suspicious. Kim is killed after she is struck by a train. Elliot is taken in for questioning by Detective Shaw, is released when Kim's suicide note reveals she killed her roommate and was planning on killing Elliot, Sasha, and John.

The librarian shows Elliot a dossier about the Bye Bye Man; a teenager killed his family and told a reporter that the Bye Bye Man made him do it. The same reporter later became the mass shooter during the '60s, who killed himself after realizing people knew about the Bye Bye Man. Elliot also visits the widow of the reporter, who reveals that the curse causes insanity, hallucinations, and eventually death. Signs of his coming are coins mysteriously appearing, sounds of a train, and a large, skinless hound. The only way to prevent it is to not think of his name or speak of him. If someone already knows, they must be killed. The librarian is hit by Elliot's car by accident, after she killed everyone in her home, coming for Elliot next.

Sasha and John are also suffering from the hallucinations. Elliot finds John stabbing Sasha. He shoots John, but after he picks up the corpse, it is revealed to have been Sasha that was stabbing John; therefore, Elliot killed Sasha. The Bye Bye Man appears and gives Elliot a hallucination. Elliot keeps Virgil and his daughter Alice away long enough for him to shoot himself with a gun. Virgil and Alice get away before the entire house goes up in flames.

While riding home, Alice reveals she found the coins from the nightstand near the trash, along with the writing. However, she could not read it due to her poor night vision. Detective Shaw arrives at the scene, where John is found to be alive but wounded. He whispers "Bye Bye Man" into her ear, hinting that the curse is going to start all over again.

Cast

Production

On September 11, 2014, TWC-Dimension acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the then-forthcoming supernatural thriller film The Bye Bye Man. Jonathan Penner adapted the script from "The Bridge to Body Island", a chapter in Robert Damon Schneck's non-fiction book The President's Vampire. "The Bridge to Body Island" tells an allegedly true story that was related to Schneck.

Stacy Title directed the film, which Intrepid Pictures produced, with its founder Trevor Macy. On June 23, 2015, Los Angeles Media Fund came on board to finance and co-produce the film. Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman also produced the film through LAMF. On November 4, 2015, STX Entertainment acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the film, and also co-financed the film. David Prior also adapted the book, along with Penner. Melinda Nishioka was a co-producer.

Principal photography on the film began on November 2, 2015, in Cleveland, Ohio, and wrapped on December 11, 2015.

Release

The Bye Bye Man was released on January 13, 2017. It had originally been scheduled for October 14, 2016, before being moved up to June 3, 2016, and later December 9, 2016.

Box office

As of February 19, 2017, The Bye Bye Man has grossed $22.4 million in the United States and Canada and $2.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $24.6 million, against a production budget of $7.4 million.

In North America, the film was released alongside the openings of Monster Trucks and Sleepless, as well as the wide releases of Silence, Patriots Day, and Live by Night, and was expected to gross around $10 million from 2,220 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up opening to $13.2 million, finishing above expectations and 4th at the box office.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 23% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Bye Bye Man clumsily mashes together elements from better horror films, adding up to a derivative effort as short on originality as it is on narrative coherency or satisfying scares." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 37 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.

A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club said, "on top of the general hoariness, this is also an uncommonly, at times unbelievably inept movie; from its acting to its script to most of its technical aspects, it feels barely fit for the big screen. The Bye Bye Man is so bad, in fact, that it retroactively improves the half-assed Hollywood horror that it’d be lucky to better resemble." Kalyn Corrigan, writing for Bloody Disgusting, said the film had "poorly developed characters", a "muddled mythology", and "horribly shoddy editing," ultimately giving the film a 2/5 rating. Jake Dee for JoBlo.com said "in a room full of 200 or so public patrons, the film drew far more auditory laughs than terrified gasps," and awarded it a 3/10 rating.