Bagman (2024) Film Review

Bagman is directed by Colm McCarthy director of Outcast (2010) and The Girl With All The Gifts (2016). 

2024 has been another very strong year for the horror genre, having that said there’s one subsection of the genre that’s been having it quite rough…the PG-13 section. Nightswim, Tarot and Bagman are the main three when it comes to this. All three have pretty good ideas on paper but lack the execution they need to really stand. 

Bagman is basically if you took The Bye Bye Man (2017) and took out anything that was so bad it’s funny about it and then proceeded to replace those moments with serious ones. Combine that with the most empty take on folklore and the end result is one of the worst movies of the year. 

Sam Claflin gives the best performance of the movie but that’s really not saying much considering how even he can’t really save this movie. A large majority of this movie is forgettable and does not really do anything with the monster, the backstory is fine enough but there’s never any real attempt to bring the viewer along the ride. Instead you are given a brief backstory and are sort of expected to fill in the blanks even though there’s really nothing to fill in. It’s just poor quality writing that feels like someone copied many other horror films that have folklore elements. 

Say what you will about The Bye Bye Man (2017) at the very least it had moments where you can burst out laughing due to how idiotic the whole movie was. Bagman on the other hand wants to be taken seriously, it’s not scary enough to warrant a watch from people who are just getting into the genre (there’s many better options) and it’s not campy in a good or bad way. It’s stuck in this category that pretty much makes it immediately forgettable after viewing. 

Bagman is available on all VOD platforms.

1/10 F