What happens when folklore comes to life? Well, that’s pretty much what Bagman is about. As interesting as the plot might seem, the execution is bland and the ending is predictable. There is so much scope in the horror genre that it’s a pity when it is not explored to its full potential. Bagman relies on a folklore that has multiple versions. As the legend goes, a man with a bag hunted for kids, and while most bagmen or similar entities kidnapped the naughty ones, there was one that hunted down the good kids. When Patrick McKee was a little boy, his father told him the story of Bagman. While Patrick thought it was just a fictional story, Patrick’s father always told him it was as real as it could get.
Spoiler Alert
Why was the Bagman haunting Patrick and his family?
Patrick had always had a creative mind. He enjoyed carving toys out of wood, and even as a grownup, he had passion projects that he desperately hoped would take off. But unfortunately, the projects resulted in pending loan payments and unpaid bills. Patrick had no choice but to move to his mother’s house with his wife and son. His brother Liam had advised him to help him with the business that he inherited after their father passed away. The constant rejection emails kept Patrick up at night, and out of frustration, he broke his small carving knife. While Patrick had heard strange noises after moving to his parents’ house, from the time he broke his knife, things got even more weird. He heard his son Jake talking to someone he called Dolly, and later he heard strange noises right outside his window as if someone was opening and closing a duffel bag. Patrick courageously stepped out with a baseball bat, but he could not find the perp.
The next day, police searched around the house, but they did not find anything significant except the old wooden toys that Patrick had made when he was a kid. Patrick was surprised when he found an old owl he had made as a young kid in the trash can. Patrick remembered losing the owl when he visited the abandoned mine as a young boy with Liam. While Liam begged Patrick to return home, he was fascinated to see a wild plum tree there, and he went ahead to bring home a branch. While Patrick was trying to grab a branch, he sensed a man come behind him and chop off a strand of his hair. Patrick was carrying the owl that day, and he remembered losing it.
Bagman’s ending made it extremely evident that the Bagman was not after Jake as it had seemed, but he was after Patrick. According to folklore, the Bagman never gave up on the kids he targeted. He always knew where to find them, and the only way to keep the Bagman away was by holding onto something that a child loved. When the Bagman story kept Patrick awake at night, his father advised him to keep something he loved close to him because it was believed that a child’s love was stronger than his fear, and the love kept the cunning Bagman away. So, as a little boy, Patrick held on to his small carving knife, and the minute he broke it, the Bagman returned to haunt him. The Bagman never gave up on Patrick; he simply waited for the right moment. While initially it seemed Patrick was projecting his childhood memories onto something real—a stranger breaking into their house—as the film progressed, we discovered that Patrick was not dreaming or imagining things; it was all real.
Did Patrick protect Jake?
Things got all too real when Karina’s sister, Anna, was attacked by the Bagman. She was looking after Jake that night so that Patrick and Karina could spend some time alone. But she had no idea an evil-looking man would break into her house to take away Jake. Thankfully, the doorman, Angelo, intervened, and Anna and Jake were rescued. After having a word with the policeman working on the case, Patrick found out that the injury on Anna’s face was similar to the one the police had investigated four years ago. A girl’s father had suffered similar symptoms: temporary paralysis and loss of speech. (In the very first scene of the film, we witnessed the evil-looking man take away the girl, and her father was lying on the floor, unable to move.) Patrick knew that it was the work of the Bagman.
That night, when Patrick went to sleep, he heard a noise coming from Jake’s room. He realized that the Bagman had already paralyzed Liam and his wife, and he had stuffed Jake into his duffle bag. Patrick followed the Bagman to his den. He found the duffle bag there, but surprisingly, Jake was not inside. Instead, he found a toy playing an audio of Jake’s voice. Patrick realized that the Bagman was never after Jake; he was the target. At home, when Karina found Jake sleeping in his cot, she realized that the Bagman had lured Patrick to his den. Patrick was ready to deal with the Bagman once and for all. He was ready to sacrifice himself to make his son’s childhood easy and happy.
What happened to Patrick?
Patrick confronted the Bagman, and he was immediately paralyzed. Seeing the Bagman right in front of him, he was reminded of what his father had once said—the Bagman would always find his victim, and he would not rest until he slung them over his shoulder screaming for help. The Bagman showed him his broken knife to help Patrick understand why he was under attack all of a sudden. The Bagman also showed him Jake’s flute, suggesting that one day his son would be forcefully brought to the den for the Bagman to feed on. Patrick knew that he had tried his best to protect his son, and even though he could barely move, he managed to grab hold of the knife, and used it to stab the Bagman. The Bagman bled, and he gradually disappeared.
Patrick held on to Jake’s flute, and he tried to crawl his way out of the den. He was almost on his way out, and he was finally able to walk when the Bagman returned all of a sudden. In Bagman’s ending, Patrick flung the flute at the entrance of the building, hoping that his family would find it. He could already hear the police siren, and he knew that they were in the area. The Bagman grabbed hold of Patrick, and even though Patrick thought he would manage to fight the monster, the Bagman turned out to be extremely powerful. He twisted Patrick and forced him into the duffel bag. Even though Patrick tried to resist, he ultimately gave up. The Bagman’s hunt had finally ended, with Patrick in his bag.
Can we expect a sequel?
Karina knew that Patrick was close by when she found the blood-stained flute. But unfortunately, the police could not access the den, and the search came to an end. Karina figured that the Bagman had taken her husband and he would never return. She believed that after Patrick sacrificed himself to protect Jake, it was her responsibility to ensure that Jake stayed in a safe place. She packed all their belongings and left Jake’s parental house. In Bagman’s ending, Karina instructed Jake to always hold on to the flute. She told him that a child’s love was magical and therefore the one thing he loved the most would protect him all his life. Karina strongly believed that the Bagman would return to haunt her son. Jake had seen the Bagman too many times, and he was attacked over and over again. The only way to protect Jake was by ensuring that the flute always stayed by his side. The flute would also remind him of his father and the extreme sacrifice he had made to protect Jake.
We can expect a sequel centered around Karina and Jake or only Jake as an adult. He had lost his father to Bagman so naturally, we can expect him to be curious and maybe find a way to deal with the monster. Bagman as a metaphor would have been interesting but the film takes the literal route. By taking away all the good boys, Bagman perhaps wanted to build a world of evil, and for now, he seemed to have been quite successful at it. It is a little strange how Bagman started to haunt Patrick after he returned to his parental house. Did Patrick always carry his little knife wherever he went? That seems a little too far-fetched. But I guess logic had left the room a long time ago. The alternate way to interpret the sudden attack is that maybe Patrick giving up on his childhood dream of building a product of his own led him to feel as if the childhood monster that used to threaten to take away creative kids had returned to snatch his creative spark. But even then, everything took quite a literal turn in the end.
