In the final phase of the slasher wave of the 1990s – started by Wes Craven's “Scream” – there was a particularly interesting representative of the genre in “Sex or die”, which simply turned the tried and tested conventions on their head: As a rule, bless The particularly sexually active teens are the first to die. But here an unknown serial killer specifically targets virgins, which is why spontaneous orgies are held throughout the town in order to get themselves safe from the killer.
On paper, the titular demon in “Bagman“ a similarly subversive potential: after all, like the anti-Santa Claus Krampus, he is not targeting the particularly bad children, but on the contrary, the particularly good and well-behaved children. He then puts these into his bag, which is actually far too small, with the bent joints of the squeezed limbs making a nice crunch and smacking noise before what is probably the loudest zipper in film history is finally closed. But despite the promising premise, there aren't more than a few half-baked jump scares in the 93 minutes.
Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) hunts down the previously unknown threat in the garden.
Because his last invention, a machine for delimbing tree trunks, brought him nothing but debt, Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) had to return to his hometown in New Jersey with his wife Karina (Antonia Thomas) and his young son Jake (Caréll Vincent Rhoden). withdraw. Here he has a secure job in his brother Liam's (Steven Cree) sawmill, but while he sinks into self-pity, he hardly notices at first that a supernatural entity is targeting his son.
Apparently this is the so-called Bagman (Will Davis), who lives in a closed mine shaft and about whom Patrick himself was warned very emphatically by his father Jake Sr. (Peter McDonald) as a small boy…
Generic through and through
The British director Colm McCarthy has made a name for himself with series such as “Doctor Who”, “Peaky Blinders” and “Sherlock”. But one of the things we remember best is his second feature film, “The Girl With All The Gifts” from 2016, in which he took a well-worn zombie scenario and turned it into a pretty special and, above all, touching horror film (» click here for criticism). With “Bagman” the exact opposite is the case: the concept actually offers all sorts of exciting possibilities, but McCarthy has turned it into a simple jumpscare parade that you can hardly imagine in a more generic way.
But even if you just want to get a good scare a few times, “Bagman” is just way too lame over the distance. “Hunger Games” heartthrob Sam Claflin drags himself through the film like a wet sack in his depressive role for long stretches. Most of the time, only weakly developed traumas are discussed in rather banal conversations, while the horror set pieces disappoint. They are rare, short and, because of the PG-13 rating, bloodless.
The mechanical doll with the crying button eyes is clearly the design highlight of the film!
The opening scene, set a few years earlier, in which the Bagman stuffs another victim into his sack on the edge of a baseball field at night after atmospherically lighting up one street lamp after another, still gives hope, especially in terms of sound design. But it fizzles out quite quickly because McCarthy simply can't get any pressure on the cauldron and the Bagman remains a very vague (and therefore generic) threat in his rules and intentions for a long time.
Only in the last 20 minutes, when the action finally shifts to the Bagman's hideout, does the film finally pick up some momentum. Although the cavernous mine looks a lot like a backdrop, the art department had some really nice ideas here. In particular, the mechanical wind-up doll with the watery button eyes would certainly have had some merchandising potential if only the film around it had been a little better. But even that is simply too little too late.
Conclusion: A particularly dull, off-the-shelf horror horror.