There is nothing more tragic than a movie with an extremely intriguing plot that ends up falling flat. To kick off 2017’s long list of horror films, “The Bye Bye Man” hit theaters Jan 13. The film stars Douglas Smith, who portrays the innocent and unknowing character Elliot. The movie starts off with a flashback scene taking place in the 1960s. Cue in your average looking home with a classic station wagon in the driveway. Then, all of a sudden, a man gets out of the car with a shotgun. The scene is very over dramatic, to the point where it’s almost laughable. The man eventually shoots up almost his entire neighborhood, asking everyone who they spoke The Bye Bye Man’s name to while repeating the words “don’t think it, don’t say it.”

Fast forward to modern day: the film shows Elliot, his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) and his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) moving into a typical horror movie style renovated home near their college campus. While throwing somewhat of a housewarming party, Elliot’s brother Virgil shows up and brings along his young daughter, who’s about seven years old. Elliot’s niece plays the usual child role of “I have to go into the creepiest room and look through everyone’s stuff until I find some weird inanimate object” and winds up finding an old coin in a nightstand in Elliot and Sasha’s room, and tells Elliot of it. Elliot later investigates this night stand, and sees the words “don’t think it, don’t say it” engraved on the inside. Looking closer, he eventually finds the name “The Bye Bye Man” (Doug Jones) carved inside. Next thing you know, strange and incredibly cliché things start happening this trio of friends.

Sasha winds up afraid of the house, so she calls up her friend Kim (Jenna Kannel) who can supposedly feel and hear spirits, to conduct a seance. And yes, following all the other clichés, Kim has black hair, dresses in typical “emo clothes” of mostly dark colors and wears black nail polish. She proclaims the obvious, that “something is weird about this house,” and flees. For the next two hours, you watch these four slowly go insane, all while discovering more and more about this “Bye Bye Man” and his mysterious story.

All in all, for a horror film, this one was not too scary. There also was an absence of scary music in the background, and a lot of the movie took place at night and was too dark to even see what was happening, like when Elliot thought he saw The Bye Bye Man in his room. With only one or two jump scares, and some “scary scenes” that were unintentionally laughable, I would not recommend this one for viewers who’re are looking to be scared out of their minds. If you and your friends want to watch a cheap horror, or you’re not into losing sleep for a few nights, I would definitely recommend “The Bye Bye Man” for you.