Shocktober 2024 - The Bye Bye Man (2017)
“Don't think it, don't say it. Don't say it, don't think it. Don't say it, don't think it! Don't say it, don't think it! Don't say it, don't think it! – Any soon-to-be victim in this movie
Maybe my parents were on to something all those years ago when I started watching horror movies in my 13th year. Maybe I have actually lost my damn mind. I was convinced that this was one of those lost Covid-19 pandemic movies that I may or may not have seen at the cinema. Turns out it predated the pandemic madness by three years, and somehow, I had neglected to ever write up a review about it. Seriously? I didn’t cover it???? (Shakes head in disbelief.) But as a feeble defence, there wasn’t a Shocktober in 2017
To compound the idiocy, when I chose it for this year’s list, I wasn’t sure which one it was. In my age-addled brain, I thought it was one of those demon attacks a child movies like Come Play or The Babadook. (I might need some professional help.)
However, as soon as the movie started, it all came flooding back – and to be realistic, some of the years since 2017 have been difficult to say the least. But I still don’t know why this was never covered before. It’s a good horror movie, and an ideal Halloween flick.
The film starts pretty shockingly enough, with a flashback to 1969, where an ordinary man is terrorising an ordinary neighbourhood with a shotgun, demanding to know if any of his intended victims have told anybody. In terror, some of them confess to having told, and then, they’re executed. At the end of the scene, the killer kills himself by drinking a bottle of drain killer.
Forward to the present day, and we haven’t a clue what’s going on, but to say we’re intrigued is an understatement. Three students rent what seems like a huge house, almost mansion-like, actually, near their college. It’s supposed to be furnished, but at first look, it appears not – until all the promised furniture is discovered in the cellar.
Okay, let’s get real here for a second. 1) If you’re renting a damn mansion for peanuts, there’s something wrong with it – right? I don’t mean structural; I don’t mean it needs a lick of paint or something – I’m thinking some apocalyptic supernatural manifestation. 2) Finding your furniture in a cellar? I don’t think so – so damn weird! Get out of there!
But, they stay, they move the furniture and all is well. For a short while.
Elliot (Douglas Smith) finds a coin that keeps reappearing. Putting it in a bedside table drawer, it falls through, on to the floor again. Removing the drawer, he checks for any holes, but there’s a sheet of newspaper as a liner with “don’t think it, don’t say it” written repeatedly on it, and under that, carved crudely into the wood of the drawer base, “The Bye Bye Man”.
Hallucinations start, Elliot starts believing that his live-in girlfriend Sasha (Crissida Bonas) is having an affair with his best friend who’s the third occupant of the house, John (Lucien Laviscount). At their housewarming party, the coins start appearing to Elliot’s young niece. After the rest of the guests leave, the three decide to hold a séance with Kim (Jenna Kanell), a friend of Sasha’s who has psychic sensitivities. She mentions the name Bye Bye Man and things escalate.
Sasha gets sick, hallucinations worsen, people die. People kill people in belief that they’re actually dealing with someone else – but what’s behind all this?
Well, in 1969, a reporter was writing a story about a teenager who killed his family, claiming the Bye Bye Man made him do it. In mentioning the name, the curse was passed on – and here’s the ingenious thing about this film. The Bye Bye Man is a curse. You hear his name, you’re cursed. The only way to pass it on is to mention the name to someone. The only way to keep yourself safe, should you hear the name is not to say, not to even think it. Otherwise, suicide will stop it, after all who’ve heard the name have died, hence the opening scene – but that reporter wrote it down, on the drawer.
The Bye Bye Man himself is played by Doug Jones an incredible physical performer, usually under several layers of latex. We’ve seen him as Saru in Star Trek: Discovery, as Abe Sapien in Del Toro’s Hellboy films, the Gill-Man in The Shape of Water, one of the sinister Gentlemen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His skeletally thin frame is used well here with a long overcoat and a devil dog beside him. Additionally, Hollywood legend Faye Dunaway shows up as the reporter’s widow, telling the story very, very reluctantly. Matrix legend Carrie-Ann Moss is ruthlessly efficient as the detective investigating the trail of deaths resulting from the curse.
There is literally nothing to dislike here. It's a genuinely creepy film, with some real scares and a sense of menace. It surprised me to see that the film had only garnered lukewarm reviews when it was released, seven years ago and no sequel is planned, no follow-up to a twist ending that leaves us feeling a little uneasy.
Check this one out, thank me later.
And don't forget the Shocktober Piercing the Veil Special. shorturl.at/5P9K0