Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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FEBRUARY 8-14, 2017 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Expires 4/30/17 WITH THIS COUPON $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $2.00 before 6:00 p.m. $3.00 after 6:00 p.m. $1.00 extra for 3D MOVIES Movie Monday: $1.50 All Day(Holiday or 3D movies excluded) Buy one get one free! Buy one get one free! I'm not gonna lie. I thought Bye Bye Man (96 minutes) was going to be so terrible I'd get bored and/or disgusted halfway through and either leave or fall asleep. But that was before I realized that Stacy Title directed it—and in 1995, she directed a neat little horror-comedy about liberals murdering conservatives at a dinner party. Um, that sounded bad. Let me explain. I don't want conservatives murdered. I liked The Last Supper because it subverted expectations, and if you enjoy political humor, it's worth checking out. Bye Bye Man is not political humor. It is based on a single chapter in a book about strange but true tales of American History (The President's Vampire), a relatively obscure book that I might check out based on the strength of the film. As horror movies go, this one spares the details so as not to spoil the story. Some might argue that a good origin story, explaining the whys and wherefores of the big bad is the key to success for a film like this. Those people are idiots. Scare me, don't bore me with details. Give me weird visuals that will linger when I try to sleep in an empty house. For example, one of the most effective parts of the film was the hanging coat. Two characters are snuggled in bed at night, while a coat hangs on the wall opposite the bed. Sometimes the coat is just a coat. But often, alchemy of light and shadow conspires to fill the coat with the Bye Bye Man. Which is exactly what happens to things hanging on my bedroom wall when I've watched too many horror movies before bed. The film catches me from the first, starting with the guy who plays Specs (Leigh Whannel) in the Insidious films. Here he plays Larry Redmon, and he is about to kill a whole bunch of people. Mass murder happens, and then the scene shifts to Elliot (Douglas Smith), his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) and Elliot's sexy mannequin (A terrible actor. Just terrible. Too terrible to name. She sort of looks like Mischa Barton). They are all moving in together. They are not renting the murder house from the mass murder in the first scene, but there is a connection. The three best friends get a Neve Campbell look-alike to cleanse the house because (confusing reason, with no real narrative support, just go with it) and since the house cleanser is also psychic, they hold a séance and learn the name "Bye Bye Man." Right around this time, Elliot's sexy mannequin develops a cough. Instead of buying some Mucinex and taking the day off, she immediately decides that an evil ghost or something is making her sick. After an extremely goofy- looking CGI hellhound appears, the two of them go to the library to look things up on the internet because … wait, that doesn't make any sense. They don't have internet in their house? They don't use Smartphones? In a movie about millennials, I'm pretty sure the library isn't useful until they need an obscure copy of an out-of-print book. Literally everything else is online. Don't get me wrong. I love libraries. I just don't understand why Elliot had to go to the library to look up the pretend monster on the internet. Of course, while I was puzzling through that, the movie whipped out both Carrie Anne Moss AND Faye Dunaway in supporting roles, which made me stop complaining about the huge plot holes. Overall, horror movies directed by women usually have a little something extra, a slight tilt to the camera, a willingness to explore uncommon themes, a subtler understanding of brutality and weakness. Frankly, I think women often make more effective horror directors because they have a more complete understanding of powerlessness and futility. If for no other reason, horror fans should check this out. Now showing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. Bad Acting, Good Movie Bye Bye Man (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910 484-6200.