User reviews

Truly a PG-13 flick. Not exactly scary if you're over the age of 13 but I can see people not into horror finding it a decent watch. With that in mind I won't exactly be harsh on the movie it had it's good and bad ideas. I think what it suffered from the most is that the Bye Bye Man wasn't exactly scary because you never knew what he'd do once he got you and it's never really explained. He's just like a guy with a dog that rides a train and leaves coins or something. I dunno he's just not a scary enough character.

The Bye Bye Man is an evil reaper who haunts those who say his name, plaguing them with visions, feeding off their fear, getting closer and closer until they can bear it no more. So, part Freddy Krueger, part Bloody Mary, part The Babadook, and part Candyman, with that entity from It Follows thrown into the mix for good measure. Clearly, there's very little originality on offer here. This probably wouldn't be such a big issue if director Stacy Title had managed to conjure up lots of effective scares or deliver some gross out gore, but her film is light on fright and strictly PG-13 when it comes to content.

The plot is also very sketchy in terms of exposition: who is the Bye Bye man? Where does he come from? What is his purpose? Why does he hang around with a poorly rendered CGI dog? Is he a metaphor for mental illness or the product of mass hysteria? (or is that expecting too much from a popcorn horror aimed at a teen audience?). Just a few of the questions that the film fails to answer. Perhaps these issues will be dealt with in a sequel, but I won't be in a hurry to find out. I'm happy to say 'bye bye' to The Bye Bye man. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Like some other reviewers said, I could not understand how the IMDb score at this time is 4.3. but there were so many 1 star ratings in the written reviews. This horror movie deserves 5 stars, which makes it worth watching if you are a horror fan. IMDb users note, horror movies rarely get above 6 stars, its just how people vote in this entire genre. A 7 in a real horror movie, is like "gone with the wind" or "citizen kane" level classic (lol). Anyways, back to the review.

This movie has a good premise, good rules for the supernatural critter to follow, real unease and dread, even among the "authority" support characters, and a few good scares. The CGI budget is low, and it DOESN'T MATTER, as it might in some other movie.

And I don't just mean it is good for an indie, it is just plain good (if you are a horror fan).

I found this movie a chore to watch. It was just so boring and drawn out.

Nothing really made sense, even beyond the lore of the monster. Like why did they take a 4 year old to a college house party. Why does the man character constantly say the name that he shouldn't be saying. It felt slapdash.

The acting is pretty awful and one of the actors is clearly English doing a horrible American accent. It makes the film slightly entertaining as it enters into like disaster territory but I was just so bored that I struggled to actually focus enough to pick up on things.

Also this movie is not scary in the slightest. It has terrible CGI and it's just bad.

Don't waste your time with it.

There are moments when you watch a trailer for a movie and think to yourself "Well, the trailer is pretty bad, but maybe the movie is better." And, sometimes the movie does actually turn out to be better, making you pleasantly surprised. I did not have that feeling as I watched the trailer for the Bye Bye Man. After the trailer ended, there was not one ounce of me that thought "OK, maybe I should give it a shot.".

I watched this movie with my best friend, who also happens to be a horror fan, only because we have literally seen everything else that was out. I personally found three major issues with the movie.

1. The characters: Not one of the characters were particularly likable, so who really cares if any or all of them get hacked to bits? They don't really have any back story. The only one you feel any emotion towards at all is Elliot, and even those moments of emotion are sparse. Of course, he's the only one who has somewhat of a history to him.

2. The acting: To put it simply, the acting is horrendous. It's downright laughable. The writing can only be blamed for so long. It felt more like a high school stage production (and a bad one at that), than an actual movie. The women who played Kim, and Elliot's girlfriend, are by far the worst out of the whole movie, the latter being slightly worse than the former.

3. The worst thing about this movie is there is no mythology about the Bye Bye Man. There is zero backstory into who or what this creature is. All we know is that he is a creepy man with a creepy dog, and that's it. We don't know why he's terrorizing and killing these people, other than the fact that they say his name. WHY?! Where did that lore come from? Even the most psychotic icons of horror have some backstory into why they are that way. This movie offers you none of that.

I wouldn't recommend seeing this movie; I wouldn't recommend renting this movie; I wouldn't even recommend watching this movie for free on Netflix. This is one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen, and I've seen some very bad horror movies.

What has happened to this genre? Years ago it seemed a similar type of film would be hitting the big screen on an almost bimonthly basis, now when we get a horror, it always feels as if something is missing somehow.

The Bye Bye Man begins well enough, and has a fairly interesting concept, trouble is the direction is so poor, it fails almost entirely to so the basic premise of a film, and tell a story, it's lazy somehow, we get no backstory, no real conclusion, and certainly no real tension.

The acting was fair I guess, but none of the cast were treated well in terms of script.

Overall, a total disappointment, some wonderful ideas, just badly realised, and way too predictable, you always seem to know what's coming next. 4/10

I'm so serious when I say this: I made an IMDb account just to rate this movie. If you are considering watching this, you shouldn't. I guarantee you, you will hate it! I felt like I was watching a comedy when I was in the theater, I even laughed a few times. The "villain" was a poorly computer animated joke. I didn't feel scared or even remotely nervous. Every single person who was involved in the making of this movie should feel extremely awful lmao. I actually think this is in the top ten worst movies I've ever seen. I wish there was an option to rate it zero. Please don't watch this movie. I'm making this review to save your time!! This has been my good deed for the day... sorry excuse for a movie in general

I didn't mind this movie. Yes there are more original and more scary ones in this genre but it definitely had its moments. Overall eerie with a few unpredictable scenes, enough to keep me interested. I would have loved to learn more about the actual urban legend and story itself but hey, i found it entertaining for sure.

I've just been to see The Bye Bye Man and i can honestly say it isn't that bad. OK so it isn't going to win any awards and its unlikely to be a horror classic. But if you go in expecting little then its a pretty decent horror film. Its pitched somewhere between Sinister and it follows.

Pros

Its quite easy to watch. Fairly decent story

Cons The acting is below average. The story had potential to be really good but seemed to lack in a proper back story and the main characters were lacking any real personality.

Overall If you are looking for an amazing horror film then this probably isn't for you. If you want something fairly enjoyable for 90 minutes i can think of worse films to watch.

I just finished watching this movie. I don't understand all the bad reviews I thought it was pretty good. I'm very particular on my horror especially these days. I found it to be rather eerie and a creepy atmosphere. It has a nightmare on elm street kind of vibe but more stranger. It's not a serial killer rip off and far from boring.

Perhaps people are just obsessed with the lousy "found footage" atmosphere or the Ouija boards possessions. I thought it was a rather refreshing considering all the other flicks these days. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it I just put it on for background noise and I thought it was going to be a random crazy fellow killing random people.

I highly suggest it I'm shocked about all the bad reviews I'm wondering if we watched the same movie. If you're not the type to listen to bad reviews I say take a chance for it.

First thing you need to know is the acting is bad. At times it's alright, at times it's awful, and at times I cringed. The plot of the movie is not bad, no one really has addressed this but this is easily the only thing that kept my interested throughout. Not a new idea by any means, but the psychological aspect of the movie kept me entertained. The directing was good. Some shots were pretty cool and some jump scares were actually clever. Depending on how you look at it, one of the jump scares was either a rip off or was inspired by a James Wan jump scare. The movie had the potential to be good and they just dropped the ball. Some people have mentioned how the shot gun deaths were one of the reasons it was a "bad" movie. These people are over dramatic. That scene, while head scratching is not going to ruin the movie. Though, it's what they had to do it seems to keep a PG-13 rating based off rumors I'm seeing/reading. If you are a fan horror, go into this movie with low expectations. If you are not a fan of horror, don't watch this movie.

I will admit that there are some very creepy parts to this film, yet watching this film I kept getting flashbacks on better horror movies that presented bogeymen way better than this one did. I felt like I was watching a movie that decided to reanact scenes from other movies.

I'm just going to come out and say it: The acting is HORRIBLE. This movies presents us with stilted, horrendous caricatures of what I think is supposed to be acting, but overall it's some of the worst I've seen in a while. The character's dialogue is so clumsy it gets awkward after a while. This is seriously worse than what college kids fresh out of film school can do!

Another error with this film is the characters describing the plot of this movie repeatedly to us OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This movie could have been about 20 minutes long! This may just be one of the most incomplete films I think I've seen in a while.

I didn't have very high expectations for this movie when it came out, but my god is it a lot worse than I had imagined it could ever be!

I actually liked this movie. It has some good scares and in my opinion it is fairly creepy. I am an avid horror collector, mostly indie horror, and indie horrors almost always out do Hollywood made horror movies. The bye bye man, though, is one of the better recently made big budget movies. It is pg13 so i don't know what all these negative review people were expecting. I was able to get a copy of the unrated version on blu ray a week before it is actually released in stores. I have not seen the original theatrical version, but oh my was the unrated version good. It had genuinely R rated feeling scenes. It made for quite a surprising experience for me, as i was expecting the typical teenage ghost story where nothing is showed and nothing is scary. The bye bye man has a similar set up to the newer movie "Satanic". Although bye bye man is much better on many levels, both movies kind of deal with the whole aspect of finding out about the entity or whatever the antagonist may be. There's no big filler or after sequences of action in this movie. It was devoted to the set up and creepiness of the huge house the college friends buy, and just the idea of the bye bye man with out ever reealllly exploring his origin. Its fast paced, douglas smith is a good actor and is actually in his early thirties!! Lol. AND there's a special guest appearance by Leigh Whannell, who is a horror maestro himself. Personally i am impressed and pleased with this movie. The setting was really creepy and the movie was overall refreshing. It really freaked me out When eliot's neiss wanders up into his bedroom while at his party. When she opens the door in the wall, what happens behind her is super scary. The synchronization of it all is terrifying. I give it a 7. Trust my review. Not the fakes

Im very picky when it comes to horror movies... I hate movies like paranormal activity and Annabelle. This movie was just fine to watch at home. The acting is off yes but its more realistic to how real people act than how most movies portray. Needless to say real people don't behave like they do in movies so this one is a nice change.

I also loved the fact that this movie was about teenagers but didn't include them having sex, getting drunk or party all the time... It was a pleasant change to watch a movie about decent teens.

The Bye Bye Man is a horror movie released in January. I think that already says enough. But it actually has a nice premise. It's about this creature (or whatever it is, it's never explained) called The Bye Bye Man who plays with your mind when you think of him and gives you all kinds of hallucinations and makes you go crazy. That's why you mustn't even say his name so it doesn't spread.

Now the main characters are, obviously, not very smart teens. The acting is one of the worst I've seen lately. Porn actors deliver Oscar-worthy acting compared to the actors in this movie. The lead actor was the only one who looked like he was trying and deliver some more emotion, but then in the second half he just goes full Nicolas Cage and it starts to feel like an overacting contest. At least it will give you plenty of unintended laughs, so if you're going into this movie just for that, you picked the right movie.

Now, back to the beginning. The movie opens a bit clichéd, but actually pretty well done. The opening is surprisingly very atmospheric and intense. But then it all just goes worse, and worse, and worse. The premise is really not bad. This really could have been good. But the writers made zero effort in explaining the story and ignored the logic or sense. Also, they pretty much copied The Ring in some moments and seems like enough horror movies these days already do that.

I hate seeing good ideas wasted on terrible movies, this is obviously one of those cases. But, fortunately, that doesn't mean the movie is boring. Actually, it's hilarious when you watch it with someone. So, if you want to see something bad and unintentionally funny, I say go for it. In any other case, avoid this.

Very poorly acted, edited, and directed horror movie that has more funny parts then scary.

Incredibly bad movie. Bad acting and the story could have been so much better than it was. I thought it was a bit messy. The lines were too unnatural. When someone breaks into your home, the question is not "who are you?" in a calm way, but "get the hell out !!" . Was also a lot of mistakes in the movie... it's simply a low budget movie... The only reason I went to so this film in theaters was due to the good feedback some people on IMDb had written. If you are in doubt then wait until it comes out on DVD / Netflix. it's not worth seeing it in theaters, select a different movie.

I'm a horror fan. Any horror film rated 5 or more is descent. I disregard all that are under. This movie was a rare exception. The first review gave a 1!? What? Did he date and have his heart broken by one of the gaffers or perhaps one of the actors? Did this person somehow get screwed? Casting couch? Ouch...OK too far. Bye-Bye Man deserves a 5+.