Horror movie fans have a notoriously high crap threshold, but it’s hard to imagine even the most hardcore watch-anything scare-fiend getting anything besides a headache out of this grindingly dull supernatural stinker. As the dreadful title implies, it’s one of those killer-from-beyond movies, as three hapless Midwestern uni students move into a creepy old house only to come face to face with ancient evil.
The underlying idea is pretty interesting: the Bye Bye Man is a sort of mind-worm, a name that, once heard, latches on to the consciousness and refuses to budge, with increasingly disorienting and ultimately murderous consequences. But the execution (no pun intended) is rotten to the core, combining join-the-dots scripting, am-dram performances and risible special effects into a perfect storm of bum-numbing boredom. To add insult to injury, it even features a cameo from the great Faye Dunaway, slumming in a thankless creepy-old-lady role. You could say it’s beneath her – but frankly, appearing in ‘The Bye Bye Man’ would be beneath your average earthworm.
