STX Entertainment has released a new trailer for their upcoming horror film The Bye Bye Man. From the producers of Oculus and The Strangers and director Stacey Tile (Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror), the film centers on a group of college friends who discover the horrific Bye Bye Man, an ancient evil that grows ever-more powerful the more you think or speak about him, and once he's powerful enough, he'll possess you entirely and make you do, presumably, terrible things.
There's a lot going on in the trailer, and a lot of warnings not to "think it" or "say it", but very little of it adds up to much more than some blatant music cues and underwhelming CGI. That said, I like what STX is doing with moderate budgets, and if there's one genre you don't need a big bankroll for, it's horror. However, what we've got here appears to be a big brew of monster tropes -- a Slender Man stock base with dashes of Freddy Kruger, The Babadook, and Candyman -- without the idiosyncrasies that make those monsters stand out. Hopefully it's just a case of generic trailer syndrome, because when you've got Doug Jones as your baddie, it's a damn shame to waste him.
The Bye Bye Man stars Carrie-Anne Moss, Douglas Smith, Faye Dunaway and Doug Jones as the titular ghoul, and arrives in theaters January 13, 2017. Watch the trailer below.
Here's the official synopsis:
People commit unthinkable acts every day. Time and again, we grapple to understand what drives a person to do such terrible things. But what if all of the questions we’re asking are wrong? What if the source of all evil is not a matter of what…but who?
From the producer of The Strangers and Oculus comes The Bye Bye Man, a chilling horror-thriller that exposes the evil behind the most unspeakable acts committed by man.
When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don’t think it, don’t say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control. Is there a way to survive his possession?
