“Barbarian” is the newest film from comedian and director Zach Cregger, and his horror directorial debut.  Starring Georgina Campbell (Murdered by my Boyfriend), Bill Skarsgård (It),  and Justin Long (Tusk), “Barbarian” has been a film that I had seen the trailer for a lot, and to be quite honest I was expecting the movie to be mediocre.  

When I saw the trailer it just looked like a mixture of two other horror movies from earlier this year, “Fresh” and “The Black Phone” which had me worried that it was going to lack its own personality, I have to admit that I was wrong.

The movie begins with Georgina Campbell’s character Tess pulling up to the Airbnb she rented for the night, pitch black and rainy, Tess walks up to the door where we are introduced to the first conflict of the film as well as Bill Skarsgård’s character Keith who happens to also be renting the Airbnb for the night.  Keith’s character is weird, the way Bill plays the character makes him feel very off putting and weird but I’ll get more into why I think that’s odd later.  

Also, it was really dumb how the first scare of the movie is a jump scare of Keith just kinda standing in a door frame, it highlights an issue I have with modern horror that it doesn’t scare you by actually building up a creepy atmosphere or putting together a unique and interesting scare and they instead opt to use the same bland jumps scares, which really just worried me that this was going to be a “If I put a loud sound over a mundane scene maybe it’ll be scary now”, which luckily doesn’t show up for the rest of the movie. 

During the night when the characters go to sleep, creepy stuff goes down as Tess is awakened by her room door being opened and the sound of running through the halls, alarmed she goes out to the hall but finds nothing there.  The next morning Tess wakes up to Keith gone as she leaves for her job interview, which is when we first get to see what the neighborhood looks like during the daytime as we see the broken down, abandoned rows of houses adding to the odd factors and ominous feelings in the air.  

This scene also highlights the film’s pretty well done visual storytelling which it boasts through its, at points, gorgeous cinematography and interesting color schemes.  

Later that day is when both characters are introduced to the secret underground yellowish room with a bed, bucket, and camera in it, it also prompts my favorite line in the movie when Keith says “We can’t just leave in a frenzy because of a bed and a bucket” in a really silly overemphasized voice.  This obviously prompts Tess to want to get as far away from the house as possible, but as Keith decides to further explore the maze-like dim caves, Tess hears him from deep inside the cave, Keith’s distant screams for help forces Tess to delve into the depths of this underground labyrinth, where she finds a distraught Keith and…

Oops, that’s as far as I can go without giving away any major spoilers, if what you’ve heard so far sounds interesting and you don’t want any spoilers I can assure you the rest of the movie is even more interesting, so if you can handle a bit of gore, I highly recommend you checking it out.

SPOILER ALERT~ SPOILER ALERT ~SPOILER ALERT

Alright so here’s where stuff hits the fan as we are introduced to the real antagonist… A horrific cave dwelling goblin-like creature with super strength that is a result of 40 years living in this underground labyrinth who pops up behind Keith and bashes his head against the wall till he dies.  

So, now let me explain why I think the way Keith’s character was setup, is dumb. The whole promotion and exposition of the movie made his character look like he was the villain which only makes his actions weirder when we find out that he’s just a vessel to introduce our actual villain “The Mother”.  I will say, I like how it subverts expectations that he isn’t the antagonist because it does work in the movie’s favor.

This scene is cut off from there as we cut to a new scene of Justin Long’s character AJ driving down the street as his Hollywood career crumbles before his eyes after accusations made against him.  AJ is a terrible person, he makes stupid excuses for his awful behavior and does not take accountability for anything which comes back to bite him later on.

Eventually AJ ends up at that same house as Keith and Tess as he happens to own the property, unbeknownst to him that they are trapped in the caves beneath him.  He stumbles across it too and as the idiot he is, explores the cave.

He stumbles across “The Mother” as well who traps him in a cave with Tess where we find out that she traps people in these caves to treat them as her babies which is really horrific.  It’s not only horrific because the creature looks so grotesque, but also because it shows off that the creature is surprisingly human because all she wants is a child to love.

The two end up escaping the caves somehow and we also get a brief explanation to what happened to this woman who was locked in this maze through this really well shot throwback to the 70’s, as we see a creepy man stalk a woman through this vibrant still intact version of the neighborhood of Barbary.

These two are saved by a homeless man who lives in the broken down version of Barbary and he explains to them that “The Mother” is the outcome of decades of inbreeding and cave dwelling and that she only emerges from her domain at night.

This is followed up by a very ironic scene as the homeless man says “good thing she can’t get in here” as she bursts through the wall and rips off his arm in the most out of nowhere and downright disgusting scene of the movie.

They are chased around for a bit yada yada yada till we are brought to their final corner when they’re stuck on the top of a silo as “The Mother” nears closer with nowhere to go.  AJ, being the absolute selfish moron that he is, sacrifices Tess by pushing her off the silo with Mother following after.  

Luckily though when AJ goes down to check on them Mother springs up, sticks her fingers into his eye sockets and rips his skull in half.  Deserved.

Tess is somehow still alive as she finally puts an end to The Mothers reign as the queen of the cave labyrinths.

And that is it, “Barbarian” has to be one of the most unique horror flicks I’ve seen in a while, it balances its creepiness with its over-the- topness that it proudly wears with flying colors.  It is a prime example on why not to judge a book (or in this case Movie) by its cover cause it might have a whole lot more beneath the surface, or maybe it just has a scary goblin lady, who knows.

Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆