Bag of Lies

Trying to care for his dying wife, a husband willing to do whatever he can to care for her finds a controversial method that could potentially save her only to be unaware of the true cost it will take on him to do so, and as he condition unravels he finds the cost eating away at his sanity.

This was a fairly solid effort overall. One of the better elements present here is the genuinely likable and sympathetic storyline that takes place here which brings everything into play. Getting enough of a backstory on his wife's condition that has been going on throughout the first half where the outcome of her condition affects both his way of life and their relationship together where the debilitating sickness that has him running his life taking care of her as well as the medical professionals trying to help take care of her makes for a great starting point. The implication towards using the black magic means to try to help out further is thus ably explained and has enough logical implications that it feels introduced quite nicely into this setup as a result. That setup allows for the more genuinely chilling genre elements to have a solid baseline to work with going forward. After this drama-centric approach. Knowing the truth about what's going on with the boost in health due to this strange ritual he performed and how it correlates to the strange figure he sees hanging around the two of them, these scenes manage to generate a rather fine air of unease between them. Being unable to tell her what's happening as the visuals and sudden appearance of the figure freak him out despite knowing the rules to the situation, the way the figure begins taunting and tormenting him to drive him over the edge creates a highly unnerving scenario the more this plays out, managing to provide this one with some fine positive points throughout here. There are some issues with this one that holds it down. The main drawback present with the film is the excessively overlong running time for this type of story that, despite not appearing egregious in the general sense, is still way too long for the type of story being presented. With far too much of the first half devoted to the relationship issues struggling with the condition she has and the care required to control it, it makes for a somewhat bland time waiting around for something to happen with the specifics of the ritual hidden so that it has a central idea but the general means it works kept away until the end. That also causes the second half to be incredibly redundant and repetitive watching him go through the same thing over and over again knowing full well that the whole thing is supposed to take place in a specific way which he's ignoring. This does tend to undo a lot of the positive points and hold it down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

Let me start the same way I start all my reviews. I love horror movies. I grew up on horror movies since I was a little kid.

Bag of Lies (2024) was not a scary or funny movie. I have tried to watch this movie a few times, but It kept losing my attention.

The acting was not bad. I do not believe it was the actors fault this movie didn't do well.

The story line, the picture, and the excitement were not there.

The beginning of the movie had promise, but it just fell short.

I usually do not give movie reviews less than a five out of ten, but there is no way I can give this one a five, this is why I gave it a four. There are other bad movies that are just not as bad as this one.

I do not recommend this movie at all.

The cast carries this movie. The setting and sets were well done too. Oftentimes with indie work, I find myself too distracted by the acting to make it through the entire show. I watched this to the end with friends. We enjoyed the suspense and sharing what we thought was happening. I'm not the best at reading in between the lines, so had I not been having a fun night with friends, I may have gotten more frustrated with the sometimes confusing progression of the plot. When it comes to the horror genre, I usually choose suspense and thrill before violence and gore, so I liked that aspect. If you're on the fence about watching, I would say, give it a shot!

Overlooked the low production quality at first because it seemed like it may have been a unique concept for a movie, but the plot ended up making no sense at all. The writing was not good, and the acting wasn't good either. Not a single jump scare was actually scary.

Music was awful, particularly at a point where the husband is supposed to be listening to something the wife had made and then referred to it as dark and haunting when it was like this weird electronic stuff? It made me and my wife burst out laughing actually. It just didn't fit how he described it at all.

They got pretty repetitive with the whole "oh it's her, it's her-it's not actually her though" bit.

Overall this seemed like a student film. Not worth the time unless you feel like chatting about what's wrong with the movie the entire time.

The movie was cool, it didn't try to be too big for its pants. The characters were portrayed well, albeit a little bit stiff in the first 20 some minutes. After that they seem to be fine. But what I really liked was the soundtrack. Whoever did that probably has a ton of the same 90s Warp Records stuff that I collect.

Overall it was a nice hidden gem on streaming services. I didn't even look at the description before viewing because for so many of those films even that is a waste of effort. Not once was I thinking I should start looking for something else. I wasn't completely enraptured by the ongoings of the film either. It seems to hit a nice stride of entertaining, without trying too hard, and just overall chill.