Earlier today, I watched the Zach Cregger-directed horror flick Barbarian at AMC theaters.
I would definitely have to say that this is one of the cleverest scary movies I've recently seen on the big screen!
Barbarian starts off in a dilapidated Detroit suburb, with a seemingly-clichéd beginning where unfortunate circumstances force a woman (Tess, played by Georgina Campbell) to spend the night at a house with a random stranger (Keith, played by Bill Skarsgård) who she distrusts so much that she secretly photographed his driver's license with her smartphone after he inadvertently left his wallet inside the room she was going to sleep in.
Keith is predictably portrayed as the odd man who draws Tess' suspicions by doing such questionable things as making her a cup of tea (she doesn't drink it) or going out of his way to venture to the local laundromat to wash new bed sheets for her room. They both coincidentally found this house through an Airbnb service.
Spoilers Ahead: This is where the predictability ends and great storytelling begins as Barbarian's story is turned upside-down the moment Tess stumbles upon a secret passageway in the house's basement!
I won't tell you what happens in that passageway, but Barbarian suddenly becomes so unconventional that the story abruptly focuses on an actor named AJ (Justin Long)...who's caught in the middle of a Hollywood sex scandal that prompts him to leave California and head back home to Detroit. It just so happens that the house which Tess and Keith rented through Airbnb is AJ's original home!
(Why AJ lived in a house surrounded by a bunch of abandoned homes that were last occupied during the Ronald Reagan years is a question that Barbarian leaves unanswered.)
AJ is actually unaware that Tess and Keith were renting his house, but by the time he finally runs into one of them (revealing which one will probably be a big spoiler), the situation has already gotten extremely out of control.
Barbarian's story gets so twisted that by the end of the film, we really don't know who the movie's title is referring to! One thing's for sure— The barbarian isn't Tess, and it certainly isn't Keith.
True to horror form, this movie definitely has both gruesome and non-gruesome 'WTF' moments: With one scene showing a man getting his head crushed as it's repeatedly slammed against the wall, another scene showing a person get their arm ripped off, and another cringe-inducing scene where a hapless victim is forced to breastfeed from the most frightening-looking woman (who somewhat resembles a zombie from 2007's I Am Legend) you'll ever see on the big screen.
Barbarian is such a cleverly-written film...with a great music score by Anna Drubich to boot. Watch it now if you want to appreciate a great horror flick! Happy Saturday.
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