The Bye Bye Man
The story on which the film is based, "The Bridge to Body Island," has a much more complex mythology for the Bye Bye Man: He was an albino born in New Orleans in 1912 who ran away as a child and became a derelict who lived in a train yard. After going blind he began murdering people and cutting out their eyes and tongues, which he sewed together and brought to life using voodoo. The resultant creature became the Bye Bye Man's literal seeing-eye dog, helping him hunt his prey. Several elements from the story- notably the dog and the motif of trains-- were retained for the movie, though their purpose is left undefined.,When the group first visits the old house and enters the basement there's a light bulb flickering. When you look closer you can see that it's a new model without the old wire type which used to cause the disconnection and therefore the flickering. Which means the flickering light you see is fake.,Elliot: No, Kim! There's a train, a real train!
Train Driver: No!,An unrated cut was released on home video in April of 2017. It is 99 minutes long compared to the original cut of 96 minutes.,Featured in Fuck You, It's January!!!: Fuck You, It's Forever!!! (2017),Psychotic Reaction
Written by Craig Atkinson,Sean Byrne (as John Byrne), Roy Chaney, Ken Ellner and John Michalski
Performed by Count Five
Courtesy of The Bicycle Music Company,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.,