Barbarian

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Barbarian is a tale as old as time. An ambitious young woman arrives at her Detroit AirBnB to find it has been double booked. The man inside is innocuous enough, if not socially awkward. Twenty-four hours later she’s being nursed by a large woman living in an underground tunnel system. This completely sane cautionary tale is the brainchild of writer-director Zach Cregger, who stepped out of the comforts of the comedy world to deliver his debut horror feature. Barbarian is unlike any film you’ve ever watched, captivating audiences with a compelling final girl, dangerous men, genetic anomalies and a lot of breastfeeding.

Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives at her Airbnb at 467 Barbary Street to find it occupied by another renter named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). Keith seems nice enough, but there’s still something off about him. Tess and Keith start to get along, after much skepticism from Tess, and they decide to share the place. The entire first act of Barbarian plays out like an irreverent romantic comedy before dovetailing into a convoluted, decades-long story about serial killers, kidnappings, inbreeding, redemption and the many micro – and macro – aggressions that men commit against women.

Zach Cregger shines as the writer and director of Barbarian, threading together a story that’s as hilarious as it is horrific. Cregger understands the fine, and often shared lines, between comedy and horror – repeatedly playing to the audience’s expectations and subverting them in absurd and terrifying ways. Plus, Cregger’s casting of Bill Skarsgård was an apt choice, weaponizing his tendency to portray killers and creeps to heighten tension within the audience. Barbarian is a film full of outlandish ideas that are perfectly executed by Cregger and the film’s all-star cast, which was hand-picked for their exceptional talent and reputation amongst viewers.

The chronically good Justin Long plays AJ, a morally bankrupt television star who skates by on charisma and hollow promises. Audiences can’t help but feel an internal conflict over his characterization. Bill Skarsgård, the terminally tortured character actor, portrays a well-intentioned young man that again causes discord. If he’s so good, why does he feel so bad? The film’s two main male characters are conflict generators for the plot and viewers, but they couldn’t do it with the help of Georgina Campbell in the role of Tess.

Tess is intelligent, strong-willed and the perfect proxy for women everywhere. Throughout the film she is inserted into familiar if not wildly exaggerated situations to which all women can relate. She carries the emotional and moral weight of the film and perfectly complements her co-stars while breaking out on her own as one of the finest final girls in the past few years. Tess plays the game, makes her own rules and navigates through tunnels of darkness by her sheer will to survive. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what all women do?

Barbarian feels like lightning in a bottle, captured in a 102-minute run time that never feels bloated or overstays its welcome. There are surprises at every turn and audiences may be stunned into silence at some of the more outlandish reveals. This is what makes the movie so great. It starts as one thing and evolves into three, four or even five more completely unexpected tales. This is a horror film that transcends genre and will undoubtedly appeal to all audiences with a taste for the berserk, bizarre and downright barbaric.