One of the hardest things to do in horror is creating your villain, as of late, it seems to have become a lost art. With THE BYE BYE MAN, we have our first notable icon in years and he is indeed a much valued addition. To coincide with the release of THE BYE BYE MAN on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital, creators Stacy Title, Jonathan Penner and Trevor Macy gave some insight into creating a horror character for the screen that will hopefully stand among the greats…

Sinful Celluloid – Because the state of horror today doesn’t lend itself to creating icons, was it easier or harder to create one with The Bye Bye Man?

Director Stacy Title – I think it’s hard because you want it to be iconic. You want to be one of the guys in that pantheon and it’s hard to reach that. You see how people turn out for Robert Englund and that’s never going away, so to try to enter that is exciting and worth while.

Trevor Macy – But it’s a high bar. Especially when you want it to come out on 2500 screens and live a long time. You really want to make him good, modern and distinct.

Jonathan Penner – And to some of a degree, none of the people at this table can control what becomes iconic. I mean, Jason wasn’t the bad guy in the original Friday the 13th, Leatherface was only a small part of that story, Pinhead became more important…etc. We all know this stuff. So if you set out to make an icon without making a good scary movie the chances of it working are poor.

Stacy Title – The part about this character that I love is that he works on your own weaknesses and what you’re gonna see is going to be different from someone else. He doesn’t have to touch you to hurt you.

Sinful Celluloid – Now the flip side of that question is, was it hard getting the film made for those same reasons?

Trevor Macy – Once STX got involved they immediately saw the potential of it and were supportive of us executing it in such a way that the character had the potential to  become iconic. But it is different because in the marketing there was a real pull towards “Can we show him doing something?” And you can show him but this whole thing is psychological manipulation. Gas-lighting, dread, that kind of thing.

Douglas Smith in THE BYE BYE MAN

Stacy Title – He can touch your forehead and show you the future but that doesn’t look as scary.

Trevor Macy – Not to say that STX wasn’t supportive of the idea, they absolutely were, but when you try to distill that particular idea down into a 15 second TV spot, it becomes a little difficult. I think they did a great job on the spots in the end but that was one of the challenges of that particular set of powers.

Regardless of how you felt the TV spots were, this is easily one of the best horror films in years. Do yourself a favor readers and check this film out!

THE BYE BYE MAN is out NOW on BD, DVD, and Digital. Be sure to check it out!