Bagman

This is just like all the other films with the same boogeyman premise. This "Pied Piper" uses a bag. That is pretty much all.

And because of the narrative skipping around the way it does, this is not only boring - it gets really confusing. So they couldn't even copy the formula in a productive way.

The effects are kinda meh. I guess there was music too. But it was probably some cliched horror music library of tiresomeness.

Oh and that dreadfully atrocious, terribly deplorable, shamefully abysmal, horrendously annoying, abominably appalling, stratospherically ear-piercing wooden deal that the kid treasures. Yeah, no.

This movie just wasn't my bag, man.

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]

There is a supernatural being stealing kids and stuffing them in his bag. After a financial setback, Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) has to go back to work at the family lumberyard. His wife Karina (Antonia Thomas) is supportive but concerned. He senses that someone is in the woods stalking their son Jake.

There are some interesting ideas here. The villain is pretty scary especially from a kid's point of view. There are also a lot of nits to pick. I mean they are in the lumber business. They could have put up a fence around the house. If they know that someone was on the roof outside their kid's room, they should probably nail shut that window. In fact, they should lock down all the windows and doors. I do like this horror villain but I don't think that he's going to gain much traction.

So after seeing this one earlier today, I thought I would give it a quick review.

Now I agree with some of the reviews such as these days people are rating gore covered horror movies with high ratings, so they realise that gore filled horror movies are not scary, why? Because they swap the scary for the gore.

This is another side of the same coin, here me out for a second.

This film was enjoyable but not scary one bit, this movie while nothing wrong with it, it became a straight by the book, seen this before non scary horror.

See what I mean when I said, two sides of the same coin. Gore filled horror movies are not scary because of the gore and by the book horror movies are not scary either but both are and can be enjoyable.

Watch this film, enjoy it for what it is and don't hope for anything special.

While I had actually never heard about the 2024 horror movie "Bagman" prior to sitting down to watch it, there would be no doubt about me actually sitting down to watch it. Why? Well, given a life-long romance with the horror genre ensures that any horror movie available gets a fair chance.

Writer John Hulme put together a script and storyline that definitely had potential. However, the narrative suffered from the fact that the movie had no ups and down. It was a pretty monotonous viewing experience, fairly devoid of anything particularly scary or thrilling. A shame really, because there definitely were potential to the storyline and script. Just a shame that it sort of fell short of delivering.

The only performer on the cast list that I was familiar with was William Hope, and he only had a supportive role to play. I will say, however, that the acting performances in the movie were fair, despite of only having a mundane script to work with.

Visually, the movie was okay. It was not a horror movie that relied heavily on special effects, and the effects that were in the movie were good enough. However, the design of the bagman itself just wasn't overly impressive, and the grand reveal once the hood was pulled back was sort of anti-climatic.

Watchable, for sure, but director Colm McCarthy just didn't deliver an outstanding or particularly memorable horror movie. And I doubt that I will ever return to watch the movie a second time.

If you are a horror aficionado, such as I am, give the movie a chance; you might just happen to find it more enjoyable than I did.

My rating of "Bagman" lands on a four out of ten stars.