What’s It About
When a sinister threat from his childhood returns to haunt him, a father desperately struggles against his deepest inner fear. Only this time, the fight isn’t for himself; it’s for his family.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
In this lackluster horror offering, “Bagman” squanders its potential with a derivative plot and uninspired execution. The film centers on Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin), who survived a childhood encounter with the mysterious Bagman, a sinister entity that lurks in an abandoned copper mine and targets well-behaved children rather than mischievous ones. Now an adult, Patrick faces mounting financial pressure after his ambitious tree-trimming venture fails. He relocates with his wife Karina (Antonia Thomas) and toddler Jake (Caréll Vincent Rhoden) to his childhood home, joining his brother Liam’s (Steven Cree) lumber business. Soon after settling in, Patrick begins experiencing disturbing nightmares and hearing peculiar sounds that echo like mechanical groaning. The film employs standard horror conventions: flickering lights, unexplained noises, and an unsettling doll nicknamed Dolly that seemingly serves as the Bagman’s tool to entice Jake. The child’s constantly playing a handmade recorder sounds sweet, but becomes an irritating concept real fast that tests both his mother’s patience and the audience’s endurance. As the narrative unfolds, we learn that Patrick’s father had warned him about the Bagman’s existence. The entity’s modus operandi involves paralyzing parents before abducting their children, never to be seen again. A pre-credits sequence confirms the Bagman’s return, showing another child’s disappearance, setting up Patrick’s desperate struggle to protect his son from his childhood tormentor. The director’s attempt at creating slow-burning tension instead results in a snails pace that kills the entire mood. The music and visuals were also off as the film failed to generate genuine scares. The occasional jump scares felt hurried, and the decision to keep the Bagman hidden in the shadow made him more disappointing than menacing. Both Claflin and Thomas deliver earnest performances, but their efforts are undermined by a tepid screenplay. Claflin particularly tries to breathe life into his role as a troubled father confronting past trauma while dealing with present-day struggles, but the material gives him little to work with. The film’s sole memorable moment arrives with its unexpectedly dark conclusion, but this late attempt at innovation cannot salvage the preceding mediocrity. At its core, “Bagman” relies too heavily on genre clichés and fails to develop its intriguing premise of an entity that specifically targets good children. Perhaps most telling is that the film’s most unsettling element isn’t the supernatural threat but rather the incessant recorder playing—a sound that might resonate uncomfortably with parents who’ve gifted similar instruments to their children. The movie’s theatrical release is surprising given its made-for-streaming quality, suggesting it might have found a more appropriate home on a streaming platform.
OUR RATING – UNDERWHELMING 2