Double Crossword
LAUNCHING a new horror franchise is almost always a heavy lift, but several properties have been successfully introduced over the past few years and show little sign of fading, including the Insidious, Purge and Conjuring/ Annabelle series. The Bye Bye Man apparently seeks to join this group.
Stacy Title helms this amalgam of haunted house, demon possession and psychological horror elements, which is often involving, although not quite entirely satisfying.
An opening sequence set in 1969 Wisconsin depicts crazed local journalist Larry Redmon (Saw writer-director Whannell) embarking on a shotgun shooting rampage, murdering eight neighbours before killing himself. Cutting to the present day, college students Elliot (Smith) and John (Laviscount) prepare to move off Stacy Title Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas, Michael Trucco, Doug Jones, Carrie-Anne Moss, Faye Dunaway, Leigh Whannell, Jenna Kanell 16HV 96 minutes campus after signing a lease on a large single-family home, along with Elliot’s girlfriend Sasha (Bonas).
Soon after moving in, Elliot finds some mysterious inscriptions inside the bedside table he shares with Sasha. Handwritten words reading “Don’t think it, don’t say it” are scrawled on the bottom of the drawer and when Elliot removes it, he finds the phrase “The Bye Bye Man” carved into the table.
After a raucous house-warming party, Sasha’s friend Kim (Jenna Kanell) helps them hold a seance in an attempt to psychically cleanse the house. She quickly calls it off when she detects a malevolent presence, saying “something is coming”, and Elliot suddenly realises that she must be referring to The Bye Bye Man.
Soon afterwards he begins to catch glimpses of a spectral, cadaverous man lurking around the house, but the others never seem to see him.
Determined to discover the intentions of the supernatural entity shadowing their lives, he begins to intensively research the Redmon shooting of decades earlier but the more he finds out, the more questions seem to arise.
Although the script by Title’s husband and actor Jonathan Penner is adapted from Robert Damon Schneck’s short story The Bridge to Body Island, it lacks any distinctive origin story or internal mythology. That forces the narrative to develop its own unique logic, which is never satisfactorily articulated, although tantalising hints occasionally surface.
From a plotting perspective, the film succeeds in laying out a plausible progression of events that rapidly envelops the bewildered characters. Smith charts Elliot’s paranoia and fear with increasingly debilitated responses to the intrusions of The Bye Bye Man. Notable supporting appearances by the lovely Faye Dunaway as Redmon’s widow and Carrie-Anne Moss as a suspicious police investigator provide the film with some brief but welcome ballast.
The Bye Bye Man wouldn’t be a franchise aspirant without hinting at the possibility of a sequel, depending on interpretations concerning the film’s ambiguous conclusion. – Hollywood Reporter 1 Archipelagic Asian nation (9) 2 Indigence (7) 3 Deities (4) 4 Bask outside in order to get a tan (8) 5 Mohair (6) 6 Ration, quota (10) 7 Spruce up (7) 8 Sap-sucking insect (5) 12 Deter (10) 15 Reaping machine (9) 16 Vertical member in an entrance (8) 18 Involving mystical Hindu writings (7) 20 Hobart’s river (7) 21 Copper-coloured (6) 22 Telegram (5) 24 Game of chance similar to lotto (4)
- 1 Witness. 2 Intrusive. 3 Auditioned. 4 Rosary. 5 Privates. 6 Bugs. 7 Ilium. 8 Rhythm. 13 Coquettish. 16 Ivy league. 17 Firearms. 18 Excite. 20 Detente. 21 Sexton. 23 Ultra. 25 Firm.