Horror flick 'The Bye Bye Man' is unintentionally funny

Horror is generally very polarizing as a genre. On one hand, a horror movie done well sends shivers down your spine and leaves you jumping at every bump in the night, terrified of what could be lurking in the corner of your eye. On the other hand, a bad horror flick leaves you yawning and bored, inwardly laughing at failed scare attempts while frequently checking the time. "The Bye Bye Man" (2017), directed by Academy Award nominee Stacy Title, unabashedly falls into the second category.

The movie follows three college students -- Elliot (Douglas Smith), his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) -- as they move into an off-campus house, ready for a fun semester with a house all to themselves. However, strange things start to happen, and before long the friends turn against each other as a sinister figure begins to torment their daily lives.

Do not mistake this for a good horror movie or even a good movie in general. In fact, one might even find themselves laughing instead of screaming at many of the supposedly climactic scenes of terror.

The actors deliver decent performances, but they are ultimately forgettable, even with names like Carrie-Anne Moss of "The Martrix" (1999) fame attached. Additionally, the special effects are lackluster and unconvincing, undermining an already average performance. There are many scenes that almost elicit screams, but the laughable effects remove any semblance of fear from most of the movie.

However, this train wreck of a movie does not stop at the special effects; the plot itself falls apart soon after it begins. While founded on the interesting premise of a boogeyman that grows more powerful when someone says or thinks his name, the idea behind an infectious, supernatural entity is the only good thing about this movie. The plot is confusing, with many details so poorly explained that you will be left scratching your head in confusion as you wonder whether the film is purposefully disorienting.

The film is not arranged in a confusing way to try and play off the hallucinations that start to become a key part of its plot; it is confusing because it is poorly written and fails to properly explain anything to the audience. Additionally, like most horror movies, the villain is only scary before he reveals himself, after which he becomes yet another cliché the movie attempts to use.

Furthermore, the movie does nothing unique to advance the genre of horror as a whole. While not every work of cinematographic horror need be an "Alien" (1979), "The Bye Bye Man" makes one think the directors sat down and threw ideas against the wall to see what stuck. The result is the aforementioned confusion and a film that seems packed full of horrible attempts to try and scare the audience over and over. In fact, one would not be faulted for laughing out loud at the movie’s weaker moments. However, on the bright side, its saving grace is that "The Bye Bye Man" could potentially serve as a cure for those with an aversion to the horror genre.

Objectively, horror movies need to do very little to achieve success; their goal is simply to scare the audience in a way that feels unique. What is astounding is how often and spectacularly certain movies seem to fail at these relatively easy goals. "The Bye-Bye Man" feels like it was thrown together at the last minute by a group of children, resulting in a finished product that you should not waste your time or money on, unless you have a certain appreciation for over-the-top, truly terrible horror flicks.