For It Is Man's Number: steven cree

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Wednesday, 4 June 2025

Prime Time: Bagman (2024)

I like director Colm McCarthy. If you're unfamiliar with his name then I suggest you look through his extensive selection of film and TV work. You're bound to find at least one thing that you'll really like. The same can be said for Sam Claflin, who stars here in the lead role of Patrick McKee. The only main contributor here that I was unfamiliar with was writer John Hulme, and Bagman is so bad that I hope to now stay unfamiliar with anything he does, at least until he attends some lessons in how to avoid treating viewers like complete idiots who will eat up any half-cooked slop.

It's a tale that we've seen many times in the past couple of decades. A man is haunted by something, or some figure, from his past. He starts to worry that his own trauma is something very real that may cause harm to his own child. This puts a strain on his relationship, but that strain is slightly lessened by the fact that his partner (Karina, played by Antonia Thomas) soon ends up believing that some supernatural threat really is looming large over the family.

Yet another glossy mainstream horror movie that exemplifies the very worst of modern horror movies, Bagman is so astonishingly bad, as well as being painfully derivative in a way that does it no favours at all (because it's never a good thing when you watch a film that reminds you of the 2005 Boogeyman movie), that it kept me in a state of perpetual anger from the opening scene to the start of the closing credits. It's not scary, it's not effective in any standard dramatic way, and it's horribly dull, in terms of both the content and the visuals.

Claflin seems to be sleepwalking through the whole thing, which I guess is in line with the mental state of his character. He certainly doesn't do anything to improve the dialogue. Thomas is a bit better, perhaps due to the fact that she's not so burdened with the weight of being the lead, and there are decent performances from Steven Cree (the brother of Claflin's character), William Hope (the local Police Chief), and Peter McDonald (the father shown in flashbacks as a younger incarnation of Claflin's character first starts to sense the presence of the titular Bagman). I really can't be bothered mentioning anyone else, they're either not good enough or just not memorable (and that includes young Frankie Corio, who made such a fantastic acting debut in Aftersun).

I don't blame the cast for the varying quality of their performances though. I blame Hulme and McCarthy. There's nothing here for anyone to latch onto, but the script and direction seem to be overseen by people desperately trying to convince everyone else that it has any weight and/or worth. That's sadly untrue. I really cannot think of any one moment in this film that doesn't have a corresponding moment in one of a hundred better choices.

I have spent some time now staring at the end of this review, trying to think of one more positive thing I could say about this film. I cannot do it. The best I can come up with is to begrudgingly acknowledge that many of the crew members show a decent degree of competence. That's it. "Bagman - there are a few decent acting turns and some people who remain competent while working with such poor writing and direction." I doubt they'll ever use that as a pull-quote.

3/10

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Saturday, 7 May 2022

Shudder Saturday: The Twin (2022)

Teresa Palmer plays Rachel, a woman who is distraught after an accident that causes the death of one of her twin sons. Her husband, Anthony (Steven Cree), wants to help make things better, and so they end up moving to a new home for a fresh start. But it's not long until Rachel starts to freak out, worried that some supernatural force is after her surviving son, Elliot (Tristan Ruggeri). Is something spooky and evil happening, and do other people around her know all about it?

Directed by Taneli Mustonen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Aleksi Hyvärinen, The Twin is the kind of horror film so bad and predictable that it feels as if those who made it have absolutely no knowledge of the genre whatsoever. Mustonen and Hyvärinen previously gave us Lake Bodom, which also suffered from a mix of predictability and some bizarre decisions made by the film-makers, but this is a big step back from that. Where Lake Bodom was flawed, it was at least flawed in a way that felt as if those behind the camera were trying to do something different. The Twin feels very much like people trying to craft a collage of horror movie moments.

Palmer is actually quite good in the main role. She's someone I have always generally enjoyed onscreen, although maybe rarely someone I would think of as a first choice for any role, and here she has to be dour and on edge for almost the entire runtime, something that she manages well. She's a sad, broken, woman, although she is also asked to give a performance that is constantly set at 11. I also thought Ruggeri was decent enough, playing the child who may or may not be different from how they were pre-accident. Barbara Marten is a welcome addition, playing someone who thinks she may be able to help Rachel, and it's a great shame that her character ultimately serves no purpose. The weak link is Cree, playing the caring, but frustrated, husband in a way that is far too passive. He's almost just a bit of set dressing in many scenes, someone who appears just to make you think of how many other, better, actors could have been given his role. They might not have done any better, but they wouldn't have been any worse.

With one or two decent moments in the first hour, The Twin really takes a turn as it moves into the third act. You end up willing it not to go in a direction you suspect it is going in . . . and then it goes there. And it doesn't just go there, it goes there hard. Doubling down on a central plot point that is as ridiculous as it is obvious, it ultimately feels like a waste of everyone's time. I guarantee you that even the most horror-averse movie viewer will see where this is going from very early on, and any attempts to trick viewers feel contrived and dishonest. Nothing is earned here, and nothing much really has any actual consequence, when you think it all through. I'll give it points for looking decent enough, for Palmer, and for having some individual moments that would have been more appreciated in a better movie, but this is one to avoid.

3/10

Saturday, 11 September 2021

Shudder Saturday: Martyrs Lane (2021)

As some may have noticed, I tend not to ever go out of my way to join in with things like "52 movies directed by women" or other ways that movie fans seek to make up for the imbalance that works against females in the movie industry. This isn't any bias on my part, and it's certainly not me trying to say that "it shouldn't matter who is directing, as long as it is good" as an excuse to go along with the status quo that has men still getting the bigger opportunities, whether they succeed or fail. There is some truth to that, however, and why I have never taken on any mission to see more movies directed by women is simply because, well, I do my best to consume SO many movies every week that I thankfully end up watching a lot more movies from female film-makers than the casual film fan. This here blog has a review on it every day (so that's 7 films a week), I watch between 2 and 5 films for the podcast, and I have, for the past few years, done my best to keep up with every movie that appears daily on the MUBI streaming service. It may be the latter that exposes me to a much more interesting variety of film-makers, but this Shudder selection for this week has shown me the impressive talent of writer-director Ruth Platt. Considering how impressed, and moved, I was by Saint Maud last year (the astonishing debut from writer-director Rose Glass), not to mention the emotional punch packed by Tigers Are Not Afraid (from Issa López), I felt that it was time to remind others of how much excellent work has been done recently by women mixing horror with sadly identifiable traumas.

Martyrs Lane focuses on young Leah (Kiera Thompson), a girl who lives in a large vicarage. It's a busy environment, but can prove to be an equally lonely one for a young child. Leah feels disconnected from her mother, Sarah (Denise Gough), and her father, Thomas (Steven Cree), is more comfortable discussing aspects of faith and spirituality than being a relaxed father. Then there's the older sister, Bex (Hannah Rae), who likes to torment Leah. The dynamic could feel very normal, a standard family that often has members rubbing each other up the wrong way, but there's something a bit off, something that nobody seems to want to address. Leah finds herself receiving visits from another little girl (played by Sienna Sayer), and the conversations between the two of them may end up laying out the problem at the heart of the family that nobody wants to discuss.

Although a tale of a mother and her children, Martyrs Lane stays focused on the viewpoint of a young child. It's a great approach, with Platt convincingly creating moments that will be familiar to anyone who had strange sensation of walking in on adults who you know had just been arguing with one another, or had been discussing something not to be spoken about within earshot of the kids. That's what this is, essentially, but that feeling is also wrapped in a layer of something that evokes loss and grief, but without young Leah being aware of what others are missing. As she gets closer to discovering the truth, helped along by her new friend, she also reminds her mother of pain that was barely being held back by the smallest of dams.

All of the cast are superb in their roles, and all play things perfectly. Gough and Cree are flawed parents who feel absolutely real at all times. Rae is the typical older sister, with her own teen turbulence distracting her from the bigger picture for most of the runtime. But the heart of the film lies with Thompson and Sayer, and both give performances so good that I hope other directors can figure out ways to keep making the most of their talents. Both are very natural, but Sayer has to act up a little bit more, playing her character as she is, someone wearing a costume/mask who wants to be completely honest with others, but fears the full repercussions.

Perhaps a little bit undecided on tone and look throughout, Platt nevertheless makes the right choice in being committed to keeping most of the film as events observed by children. Would I have liked a more gothic style? Would I have enjoyed a few more moments of creepiness, some actual scares? Yes. This isn't a film to watch if you're after some standard jumps and a bit of bloodshed, but it could have added a little bit more of either without losing its way (as far as I can tell). Platt clearly had her mind set on the way to best tell this story, however, and it's hard to really fault an end result that feels as if it accomplished everything she wanted.

I was enjoying Martyrs Lane while it was on, especially when I realised what kind of film it was, but I was a little bit in love with it by the third act. The ending may be a bit too unambiguous for some, especially after the dreamy quality of many moments in the first two acts, but it worked for me. As the end credits rolled, accompanied by some more of the lovely music provided by Anne Müller, I knew it was a film I would have to hastily recommend to others. I suspect few will like it as much as I did, but I'll be happy if one or two others share my view.

8/10