The Bye Bye Man, a chilling horror-thriller that exposes the evil behind the most unspeakable acts committed by man. When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don’t think it, don’t say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control.

Elliot (Douglas Smith) is a Wisconsin college student with a tremendous amount going for him. Somehow, he and his lovely girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas), along with his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) have found a gigantic house just off campus to live in through the school year. Granted it is Wisconsin, but something seems suspicious about a large, vacant house whose furniture has been stored in the basement. Not thinking a thing of it, the young and beautiful trio rent the property, whip the house into shape and furnish it with what they found downstairs in storage. Elliot also dismisses the odd scrawls in the liner of his nightstand that bear the name of our titular spectre. But more on that in a bit.

It’s during their housewarming party that things begin to seem a little off. Sure, the party goes off without a hitch. But Sasha’s psychic friend Kim (Jenna Kanell) suggests a nice spiritual cleansing after the house has cleared out. Great idea, but of course, skeptic Elliot pushes Kim and a full blown seance ensues. Spirits hound Kim, “Don’t say It. Don’t think it!”. That’s, of course, when Elliot blurts out the name, “The Bye Bye Man.” Then all hell begins to break loose. Not immediately, but there is a slow burn as more and more begins to happen and the characters get pulled further into the insanity surrounding this evil entity.

The idea behind this particular baddy is this. The Bye Bye Man is a temporal killer. He is a being that is summoned not just by the fools that utter his name aloud, but you can show up on his radar just for thinking of his name. Once you are on his telekinetic ticker tape, he comes for you immediately. The only way to stop him is to kill off any knowledge of him, literally. This of course means murder of anyone you might have told, then suicide if you are the considerate type.

As things begin to unravel for the quartet of college kids, they start to hallucinate and have paranoid delusions. They all know his name, hence he is in their heads, playing on their fears. When things really get batshit, Detective Shaw (Carrie-Anne Moss) arrives to try and decipher the rash of absurd behavior and deaths. 

Based on a tenuously true account of three college students that got in trouble with a ouija board in the short story “The Bridge to Body Island”, The Bye Bye Man is a horror flick that has a lot going for it but just as many issues. Let’s start with the name. The Bye Bye man is a clunker of a title. Now, normally this isn’t something one should use to judge the merit of a film. But let’s just think about what might have happened if Casablanca had stuck with its original title, “Everybody Come To Rick’s”

Moving past that we find that Stacy Title directs a film with elegance and style. She knows how to pace things and she keeps a very disciplined rhythm to the proceedings, allowing for the slow burn to really smolder. Title is also able to keep her ducks in a row and never lose us when sharing the hallucinations of multiple characters at once. This leads to some surprisingly effective moments that will stick with viewers.

Jonathan Penner’s script is a worthy attempt at a sort of Candyman meets Nosferatu meets I know what you Did Last Summer, combining legend, paranoia, and a ghoulish monster bent on death. There are some effective flashback scenes that set up the threat nicely, so we fully understand the threat. However, we would have truly benefited from a bit more clarification of the rules and reasons behind what or who The Bye Bye Man is. That’s not to mention a clearer explanation of the demon dog that heralds his arrival. What is there is great, but it almost seems like a waste to cast the brilliant Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth) as The Bye Bye Man if we don’t get to revel in his evil.

The performances are fine and the leads are not only easy to look at but likable. Kanell’s Kim in particular is one that brings a ragged believability to her performance, playing the often made fun of psychic that is entirely too sure of what’s coming for them. Another stand out is Cleo King as Mrs. Watkins. She has some of the best moments of the movie with very little screen time. And we can’t forget the amazing Faye Dunaway in a scenery-chewing cameo that made us squeal. It was great to see her onscreen again. We need more of that.

In the end, the movie isn’t perfect, but it is fun. Once the premise is laid out and the plot can begin to roll out, you are in for one hell of a ride. There are none of those cheap jump-scares or sudden sound effects. No, the scares that are here are well-earned. This isn’t a game-changer of a movie but fun distraction worth a look.