Bagman 2024 Movie Review
Colm McCarthy’s “Bagman” became one of the most recent additions to hit Indonesian cinemas, but it seems to struggle to stand out from other horror movies.
As a child, Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) encounters Bagman, the titular malevolent creature from his childhood. Bagman snatches children –not the naughty ones, but the good boys and girls– and puts them in a bag, as his name suggests. But the young Patrick manages to survive the sinister threat. Fast forward to the present time, Patrick, who has been fond of carving since a young age, is now a father to the toddler Jake (Caréll Vincent Rhoden) and the significant other to Karina (Antonia Thomas). Bagman returns to haunt Patrick’s family and the father now has to protect not himself, but his son.
“Bagman” has a poor buildup, and this might cause the audience to set low expectations on how the story unravels. We see Bagman trying to get Jake’s attention with a child-sized, button-eyed doll he calls Dolly. The innocent Jake appears to be unaware of the evil nature and welcomes Dolly’s presence. There are several loud jumpscares in the movie.
“Bagman” tells its story in a non-chronological order as it tries to put the audience under the impression –just like Karina– that the mythological child snatcher is aiming for Jake, and not the real target Patrick. The sudden switch from Jake being threatened by Bagman to Patrick waking up from a bad dream also seems to be McCarthy’s attempt to throw the audience off. The acting for most parts of the movie is not as memorable, and so does the dialogue.
But after a tedious first half, “Bagman” gets more interesting in the latter part of the movie: particularly after the father-and-son moment between Patrick and his dad. Patrick’s dad reveals that Bagman can be defeated as long as the child holds on to the object he truly loves.
The dad’s delivery of the line “a child’s love is a magical thing” is something that sticks in your head even after you step out of the theater. The ending of Patrick sacrificing himself to save Jake –by getting the child’s favorite flute that could protect him from Bagman– might be predictable, but still quite touching.
“Bagman” has its ups and downs. It is a horror with a poor buildup, but if you decide to stick around, the movie still has moments that keep you on the edge of your seat. Even so, “Bagman” is still far from being a memorable horror movie.
