Per usual, early autumn is packed with new horror films, most of which rake in cash during the upcoming weeks to Halloween and are subsequently forgotten. They usually don’t drift off-course from standard studio formulas, and Barbarian’s advertising led many to believe that it would blend right into the crowd. However, Barbarian’s trailer is entirely misleading. Viscerally tactile and genuinely chilling, the film strays far from the corporate formulas and twists itself into something campy, grotesque, and sick.
Almost entirely limited to a single plot of suburban land, Barbarian’s confinement to a small space doesn’t confine it to being a small-scale horror film. Laboriously crafted, Zach Cregger’s jack-in-the-box filmmaking strips horror to its bare bones and subsequently builds it a whole new body, all while remaining thoroughly and genuinely terrifying.
In the midst of a downpour, Airbnb renter Tess (Georgina Campbell) is forced to spend the night with a complete stranger (Bill Skarsgard) after they both fall victim to a double-booking scam. However, as her trip continues, the disturbing absurdity of Tess’s situation becomes more and more apparent until it transforms into a heart-pounding saga of genuine terror and originality.
Cregger’s meticulous direction is so fine-tuned that even if it goes unnoticed, it definitely won’t go unappreciated. Each shot and movement is crafted to be particularly unnerving, and this unease makes itself clear by conscious and subconscious means. He plays on our knowledge of horror tropes and turns them on their head, even teasing us with what we assume will be predictable.
Like much of modern horror, Barbarian tries to place itself within the context of relevant sociopolitical issues, but in this instance, the severe backdrop doesn’t read as reductive of reality. #MeToo and the collapse of industry and white flight in Detroit are essential components to the film’s ambiance but are not deprioritized for the sake of the character’s direct circumstances. I don’t think Barbarian is tapped in enough to these issues to give itself a unique voice, but it does not discard them either.
Barbarian’s scares are as cerebral or superficial as the audience will choose to make of them, making it a thoroughly thrilling and substantially satisfying movie that balances tried-and-true convention with unapologetic bizarreness.
Barbarian was released on September 9 and is currently streaming on HBO Max.
For this kind of job, you need two guns . . .