Bagman

Grim horror film starring a good family, including chills, mystery and a lot of creepy surprises. Overwhelmed by debt, a father must go back to his old family home with his wife and son. However, a dark creature that stalked him as a child is still there, and now threatens to take away what he holds most dear in the world. Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) narrowly escaped such an encounter as a boy, which left him with lasting scars throughout his adulthood. Nowadays, Patrick's childhood tormentor has gone back, threatening the safety of his wife Karina (Antonia Thomas) and son Jake (Caréll Rhoden). Patrick will embark on an adventure against time to discover the truth hidden behind the terrifying legend of what is known as "The Bagman". He's always closer than you think !.

The myth of the bogeyman resurfaces once again in this dark and tense psychological and physical horror film. Horror and mystery film with full of thrills, suspense, chiller , eerie intrigue, plot twists, dark atmosphere , and otherworldly happenings, in which a family finds themselves ensnared in a nightmare as they are hunted by a malevolent, mythical creature from father's childhood, returning to haunt them . This same role was in a film last year titled "El hombre del saco" (2023) with Javier Botet in the title role, the latter often plays supernatural villains as ghosts, monsters, witches, demons, etc. And exploring the Spanish origins of the character's story, where he is a tuberculosis patient from Almeria who will do anything to get well, even consuming the blood of the kids he kidnaps in a sack. This Spanish Boogeyman, also called Bagman, a child-kidnapper who used a great bag or sack to get them inside into it, take the children from their bedrooms and disappear with them.

This is an entertaining and creepy proposal, a PG-13 horror film, although it seems prudent to reserve it for somewhat older boys, since its effect may be excessive grim on the little ones. Thus the film will not please the general public at all, the result is not entirely satisfactory: it is much less scary than expected and with shortcomings and failures.

Starring Sam Clafin (Hunger Games) as a father plagued by childhood fears and traumas who must confront his past when an eerie creature that stalked him as a child is still there, and now threatens to take away what he holds most dear in the world. Along with other not very well known secondary actors: Antonia Thomas as his wife, Adelle Leonce, William Hope, Steven Cree, Rosalie Craig and Peter McDonald

Adding a shading and somber cinematography by cameraman Nick Remy Matthews, as well as tense and pulsing musical score by Tim Williams. The motion picture was mediocrely directed by Colm McCarthy, but he doesn't bring anything special to the genre because we've seen the terrifying situations many times before and even better filmed. He's a craftman filmmaker, a director best known for his work on notorious TV series, such as: ¨Peaky Blinders, Sherlock, The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself, Curfew, Doctor Who , Black Mirrow, Krypton, Injustice and Endeavour¨. McCarthy has also directed a few feature films, such as: ¨The Girl with All the Gifts¨, ¨Outcast¨ and this ¨Bagman¨. Rating : 5/10. Average, but with some brief passable moments.

I mean come on... your house has been invaded 10 times and you still choose to watch your kid on a monitor, leave him unsupervised in a tub, and constantly move out of sight of the child to allow things to happen further? Where is the common sense meter when it comes to writing. I understand movies need suspense points but when you have to insult our intelligence to achieve suspense then that's just a recipe for a bad review. No parent will put their in law who has been attacked in the bed with them while they put their baby in another room to watch on a monitor. Lots of holes in the story and terrible editing. At one point a loud bang in the babies room and both parents started running somehow in that 2 seconds the wife was on the phone with the police. God this was awful.

The Bagman had an intriguing premise but left a lot of questions unanswered, especially when it came to the characters' decisions. One of the most perplexing choices was leaving the child alone while all the horror unfolded. It felt illogical, given that the adults were clearly aware of the danger and opted to sleep together for safety. Why would they separate the most vulnerable person? This inconsistency really pulled me out of the experience and made it hard to connect with the characters' survival instincts.

That said, the movie did have its moments. The atmosphere was chilling, and there were a few genuinely unsettling scenes that kept me on edge. However, it often felt like the pacing was off, with long stretches of buildup that didn't always pay off.

Despite these issues, I'm actually interested in the sequel. The film has laid down some groundwork that could go in a great direction. If the sequel addresses the characters' decisions better and tightens up the storytelling, it could deliver on the promise that the first film hinted at. There's potential here, and I'm curious to see how it develops.

Bagman has low ratings, but I usually don't let that stop me from watching something that seems interesting. Sometimes the movies are incredible, and sometimes they are worse than the ratings. Horror movies are not ever scary to me, but I enjoy the atmosphere and psychological parts of them. Bagman was not anything very original, but it was still a decent watch. I didn't find the movie hard to follow and I didn't see the parents as terrible like so many other reviewers have said.

I gave this a 6 rating and would have a 7 if not for the "ending" of the end of the movie. After how the movie turns out, and that was definitely different and I wasn't really expecting that, but it's after what happens that I felt was a little flat. I guess it ended how it should as not to be carried out to be a 3 hour movie, but I kind of wanted to see more. The climax was good though and I felt made it worth seeing the movie through. That's a good thing. Just when you think you know what's going to happen, because again, it wasn't anything with an original plot. That was a really good way to turn the movie into something different.

I say give it a go. It was a decent movie with a really good ending.

Bagman is essentially the definition of a generic horror movie. Nearly everything it attempts has been done before, and audiences are tired of these tropes. An evil entity tries to lure a young child away from its parents, who are too clueless to take effective action against it. There are cheap thrills, weak jump scares, foolish characters, and a child who sounds eerily similar to Gage Creed from Pet Sematary (1989).

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect is the parents' irrational behavior. When your child seems to be in danger and there are multiple break-ins at your home, you would make sure to stay close to your child. However, these parents do a remarkable job of ignoring their kid or keeping a significant distance, allowing the entity to enter the house undisturbed. There's also the typical exposition dump and one of the most generic modern horror plots imaginable.

Honestly, though, I kind of liked the entity, and I think there was some potential to create a decent horror movie with it as the antagonist. Unfortunately, the film fails to stand out amidst all the subpar horror being released today, making it hard to imagine that many people will enjoy it. While there were a few moments I appreciated, overall, it's far from good. [5.2/10]