Stacy Title
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Naturally, the project recalls Jordan Peele’s recent “Get Out,” which implicated well-mannered white people in a nefarious plot to steal the brains and skills of unsuspecting African Americans, as well as 1995’s early Cameron Diaz starrer “The Last Supper,” wherein a group of liberals lured contemptible conservatives to dinner, only to poison them when they refused to see reason.
It can’t touch the Clinton-era satires The Last Supper (1995) or Citizen Ruth (1996), which succeeded for reasons other than being on “the correct side.”
It’s akin to THE LAST SUPPER, GOD BLESS AMERICA, or THE RUNNING MAN, where it’s meant to build on current situations and blow them up to ridiculous proportions.
Writer Jonathan Penner (Title's spouse) reaches further back into the horror canon to the 90s with a simple set-up that bears comparison to Bernard Rose's seminal Candyman , with characters doomed to hallucinate and enact violence if they dare to utter the titular character's name.
This PG-13 rated schlock masquerades as another of those urban legend staples borrowing heavily from the visualizations of Sinister (2012) and without the kind of subtext which still makes Candyman (1992) feel like a relevant attempt at contemplating the kind of power belief holds as far as personifying fear.
We’re spared the bullshit “based on true events” tagline here, because the character as written by Schneck was essentially Clive Barker’s Candyman.
After a prologue in 1969 where a guy ("Insidious" veteran Leigh Whannell) shoots up his culdesac, the movie jumps to today, where three cute college kids — Elliot ("Ouija's" Douglas Smith), his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and his best buddy John (Lucien Laviscount) — leave the dorms and rent a rickety old house.
Launching a new horror franchise is almost always a heavy lift, but several memorable properties have been successfully introduced over the past few years and so far show little sign of fading, including the Insidious , Purge and Conjuring/Annabelle series.
The glare of sunlight belies the horror we’re about to witness, as Larry (Leigh Whannell of “Saw” and “Insidious” fame) targets vintage-costumed victims with a shotgun, asking them who they told.
At first, we think he’s going to be the sort of shock-cut figment who pops up in the bathroom mirror, like Candyman or one of the ghosts from “Insidious.”
Larry (Leigh Whannell, "Saw," "Insidious"), who mutters 'Don't think it, don't say it' over and over, has covered his living room with the warning.
There’s also a bizarre, fitfully amusing prologue (which later morphs into an impromptu flashback) featuring Leigh Whannell, the Saw and Insidious scribe having what appears to be a grand time hamming it up as a journalist who should have left a story involving a perplexing 1969 murder spree well enough alone.
Co-star Jenna Kanell perfectly channels Neve Campbell from “The Craft” as she channels energy in the spiritually compromised house.
The Shining (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Visuals Plot Themes
There is no escape, though some have tried by writing “don’t’ think it/don’t say it” with “The Shining”-like obsessiveness on walls.
You can trace the premise right back to “The Shining” — to that scene where Jack Torrance, standing in the bathroom with the caretaker, enters his new reality of murder.
Cinematographer James Kniest’s fluid Steadicam and forced perspective shots casually nod to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining without being unnecessarily derivative.
But in this movie’s case, all roads seem to lead specifically to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining , a masterpiece whose terror is modeled so closely on familiar patterns of domestic abuse that even without its supernatural kink it might still be a pretty scary movie, just for different reasons.
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
influenced by The Last Supper (1995)
Visuals
Instead, Poirot holds court in a freezing train tunnel with the suspects comically arranged to reference da Vinci's "The Last Supper."
When it does come time for Poirot to present his theory of what really happened, he lines everyone up like the disciples in Leonardo’s “The Last Supper” but fails to articulate how he untangled the far-fetched plot.
When Poirot gathers all his suspects together to explain how the murder was done, our twelve characters are arranged at the table like disciples at The Last Supper.
As a director, he overcompensates for the staid, inert material with flashy, distracting visuals, from a dizzying tracking shot as Poirot walks the length of the train to a lineup of suspects that mimics Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
As the film reaches its denouement, Poirot has the remaining 12 passengers seated at a long table --- audible audience snickers as it has the look of "The Last Supper" --- in what is a gripping conclusion, and a shocking surprise.
Unlike the excellent It Follows, this thriller borrows from Sinister to perpetuate its languishing myth until it goes into In the Mouth of Madness mode.
Director Stacy Title and writer Jonathan Penner probably didn’t set out to make a movie this godawful, but it seems that their crude amalgam of Sinister, It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Babadook revolted against them in production and escaped into theaters as a vulgar, misshapen mess of unintended comedy and melodrama.
This PG-13 rated schlock masquerades as another of those urban legend staples borrowing heavily from the visualizations of Sinister (2012) and without the kind of subtext which still makes Candyman (1992) feel like a relevant attempt at contemplating the kind of power belief holds as far as personifying fear.
If you’ve seen Sinister , Candyman or Oculus , you’ve seen The Bye Bye Man .
It’s like Title and Penner looked at It Follows and The Babadook and said “I’ll do that,” except he had no clue how to actually do that .
If someone got drunk, read the Wikipedia entry for “It Follows” and decided over the next morning’s hangover to write a screenplay, “The Bye Bye Man” might be the result.
Director Stacy Title and writer Jonathan Penner probably didn’t set out to make a movie this godawful, but it seems that their crude amalgam of Sinister, It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Babadook revolted against them in production and escaped into theaters as a vulgar, misshapen mess of unintended comedy and melodrama.
But there isn't anything like atmosphere, let alone subtext (like the way "It Follows" evoked sexual disease, or "The Monster" played on bad parenting).
The Bye Bye Man is like someone watched a double-bill of The Babadook/It Follows and said "I can do that!"
Unlike the excellent It Follows, this thriller borrows from Sinister to perpetuate its languishing myth until it goes into In the Mouth of Madness mode.
The film has a sort of late 90s feel, if mostly for the rampant YA craze inspired by Wes Craven’s Scream films and I Know What You Did Last Summer .
An opening sequence set in 1969 Wisconsin depicts crazed local journalist Larry Redmon ( Saw writer-director Leigh Whannell) embarking on a shotgun shooting rampage, murdering eight neighbors before killing himself.
The glare of sunlight belies the horror we’re about to witness, as Larry (Leigh Whannell of “Saw” and “Insidious” fame) targets vintage-costumed victims with a shotgun, asking them who they told.
As refashioned by Penner, the picture opens decades in the past, when a reporter named Redmon (Leigh Whannell, one of the original “Saw” creators) goes on a killing spree ending in suicide, muttering the movie’s advertising tagline, “Don’t think it.
Larry (Leigh Whannell, "Saw," "Insidious"), who mutters 'Don't think it, don't say it' over and over, has covered his living room with the warning.
There’s also a bizarre, fitfully amusing prologue (which later morphs into an impromptu flashback) featuring Leigh Whannell, the Saw and Insidious scribe having what appears to be a grand time hamming it up as a journalist who should have left a story involving a perplexing 1969 murder spree well enough alone.
Less cohesive elements would be the earnest appearance of Carrie Anne Moss as a thoroughly intuitive detective, or an outright terrible performance from Leigh Whannell (the scribe of contemporary genre films directed by James Wan, like the Saw and Insidious franchises), although these extremes are a lot more interesting than the tepid sexual tensions playing out between the three leads, all of whom give serviceable performances in rather subpar characterizations.
Adapted from Damon Schneck's 'The Bridge to Body Island' by Jonathan Penner, "The Bye Bye Man" is like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" for the waking crossed with the Bloody Mary urban legend and "It Follows'" contagion concept.
Director Stacy Title and writer Jonathan Penner probably didn’t set out to make a movie this godawful, but it seems that their crude amalgam of Sinister, It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Babadook revolted against them in production and escaped into theaters as a vulgar, misshapen mess of unintended comedy and melodrama.
Sometimes, like 2020’s The Grudge reboot or 2017’s The Bye Bye Man, they turn out to be reminiscent of the old pattern of January horror – a lackluster (at best) effort dumped in the post-holiday hangover period to try and lure audiences who aren’t in the mood for a much-hyped award contender.
Say “Hello!” to the latest attempt by Hollywood to craft a new horror icon in the vein of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, or even the concept of “Death” from the underrated Final Destination series, which is arguably the franchise The Bye Bye Man most closely resembles.
It goes for the logic of momentary jolts, and for a tone of macabre youth-schlock sensation, like “The Conjuring” crossed with a “Final Destination” sequel.
The scary stuff -- borrowed heavily from Candyman , The Ring , Final Destination , and others -- is just as pathetic, despite Doug Jones portraying the title monster.
Stacy Title's latest directorial effort is a throwback to early 00s American teen horror such as Jeepers Creepers and Final Destination .
The narrative is acted out in such a superficial and awkward way, that a sober viewer might be driven to drink and a viewer with cinema smarts and common sense might split from the theater to go home and watch instead the superb 1976 missing person horror pic of Larry Cohen’s “God Told Me To.”
Shot beautifully, scripted perfectly and acted wonderfully, “The Menu” is a dark comedy/horror in the tradition of 1995’s “The Last Supper” that uses a clever setup to explore real characters in an unreal situation.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Directed by Jim Gillespie
influenced The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Themes
The college setting and young-adult protagonists give the movie the feel of ’90s horror classics like “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
The film has a sort of late 90s feel, if mostly for the rampant YA craze inspired by Wes Craven’s Scream films and I Know What You Did Last Summer .
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Directed by Robert Aldrich
influenced The Bye Bye Man (2017)
The scene proves that the veteran actress has definitely entered her “late period Bette Davis” phase, the era of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and the like.
The film was directed by Stacy Title (Let the Devil Wear Black 1999) under a script written by her husband Jonathan Penner ( Coneheads 1993), was based on the book The Bridge to Body Island by Robert Damon Schneck.
At the very least, what The Da Vinci Code says about Jesus and the Church makes for fun speculation, and when Ian McKellen comes on and shows the supposed hidden messages in "The Last Supper" the movie comes close to being the cracking good yarn it should've been.
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno do a good job of not overplaying their roles, and Sir Ian McKellen overplays his in just the right way, making Sir Leigh into a fanatic whose study just happens to contain all the materials for an audio-visual presentation that briefs his visitors on the secrets of Da Vinci's " The Last Supper " and other matters.
Nuns get whacked, the Crusades are uncloaked as the medieval equivalent of the current Middle East sham, and Da Vinci's The Last Supper hints at the human roots of Jesus, yet Howard and scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman, his usual partner-in-idiocy, are so afraid of offending ticket-buyers that any potential provocation ends in a lukewarm puddle.
Like actors John Cazale in “The Deer Hunter” and Chadwick Boseman in “Black Panther,” a major creative force in shaping “The Bye Bye Man” struggled with a terrible illness at the time of filmmaking.