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Horror movies don't come any dumber than "The Bye Bye Man," a haunted-house thriller without any rhyme or reason.
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.
Elliot comes across some furniture scrawled with the words "don't think it, don't say it" and a name: The Bye Bye Man. When Elliot utters the name to his friends, they all start experiencing awful hallucinations and murderous thoughts, while seeing a creepy hooded figure (played by Doug Jones).
Director Stacy Title gooses the audience with jump scares that are as random as the title bad guy's actions in the script, written by Title's screenwriter husband, Jonathan Penner.
The only truly scary thing in "The Bye Bye Man" comes from contemplating what dirt the filmmakers must be holding over respectable stars like Carrie-Anne Moss and Faye Dunaway to get them to show up in this garbage.
'The Bye Bye Man'
Opening Friday, Jan. 13, at theaters everywhere; rated PG-13 for terror, horror violence, bloody images, sexual content, thematic elements, partial nudity, some language and teen drinking; 96 minutes.