“Don’t think it, don’t say it” as the tagline suggests for the new teenie bopper scare-less thriller “The Bye Bye Man.” A film cut and pieced together from oh so many other, better made, teen fright fests in the same vein. Desperately trying to sell itself as it’s own urban legend folklore; the film follows a pair of baby faced college students (Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount and Cressida Bonas) as they shack up inside a new cul de sac where, unbeknownst to them it’s, of course, haunted. The one guy stumbles upon a drawer with some scribbles inside that say BYE BYE MAN (a brief prologue at the start deems that just saying the name out loud proves futile - kind of a like a demented Beetlejuice).

The kid says the name, and begins his investigation into the Freddy Kruger wannabe. They all start seeing visions of things not in front of them, hearing scratches inside the house, and start having troubled thoughts that lead to drastic conclusions. The campiness within the film is almost enough cheese for me to say, check it out for a good laugh..but that would be wasting your time. One thing I can respect at least is this was directed by a promising up and coming female director, Stacey Title. Only problem is “The Bye Bye Man” never has any depth nor does it explain the origins of the titular character. Which is truly surprising, considering the best parts of the movie are when it shifts into flashback mode, and gives us something to chew on. You would think Title would treat her audience better, after all we are already seeing this movie, safe to assume we don’t know the difference. But the REAL struggle with this movie is that it takes too long to actually get anywhere, and it doesn’t come up with anything outside of the ole’ “rock hitting the window” jump scare.

However, I will say that If you are under the age of, oh let’s say, 14 this might terrify the bejeebers out of you. For everyone else I have a new slogan for this movie that you all should abide by: “Don’t see It.” D-