Barbarian
In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway, but soon discovers that there is much more to be afraid of in the house than the other guest.
- Released:
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thrillers
- Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Richard Brake, Jaymes Butler, Sophie Sörensen, Matthew Patrick Davis, Kalina Stancheva, J.R. Esposito, Trevor Van Uden, Kurt Braunohler, Rachel Fowler, Kate Nichols, Kate Bosworth, Brooke Dillman, Sara Paxton, Will Greenberg, Derek Morse, Zach Cregger, Devina Vassileva, Julian Stanishkov
- Director: Zach Cregger
Comments
- yetanotherfakeaccount - 30 June 2024
Why do criticis love this film?
First off, this isn't a completely horrible film.
It is competently filmed and has a great cast. The acting IS indeed good for most of the time.
However, very early on the characters, who are presented as smart, sensible people, start doing idiotic things.
Why would you go into dark, subterranean tunnels without any back-up or anything to make this safe in any form?
Why would you stay at a house where a guy just completely disappeared? I don't care if there is no hotel room open, nor anything else to book. Go to a 24 hours open shop or restaurant, or switch restaurants, drive your car somewhere decently safe and sleep in it. Literally ANYTHING would be better than staying there.
And this is in the first part, where the story is mostly working, and the logic isn't completely thrown out the window. In the second half you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone, including the monster, make any sensible choice at all.
So, why is this film rated so high?
I'm going to go with a wild guess and say it has nothing to do with the story or quality of filming (which is alright, just nothing special).
Okay, let me spell it out for you.
First guy, while seemingly a nice, alright guy, still becomes a male moron when he decides to go all white knight and venture into the darkness alone while being pretty "mansplainingly" to the lead actress.
Second guy is a sex offender, duplicitous, egotistical, who has been metoo-ed and doesn't even accept what he has done or that he was wrong.
For a short time, he seems to have learned his lesson, only to be a complete and utter piece of trash again.
The two male cops who come after the lead actress called for help, believe she is a drug addict, or hysterical or maybe just pranking them or whatever. For no reason at all, she is well-dressed, doesn't even live in the bad part of town, she just rented it for a job interview. But no, male cops, female victim, of course they are being toxic morons and act like "women be crazy."
"The monster" is basically just a female victim of a completely deranged misogynistic guy. The guy is completely responsible for what she became.
The ONLY acceptable guy is an old POC homeless dude, and even he is weaker, stupider and more of a coward than main girl.
If that doesn't convince you, the writer and director came up with the film, after reading a part in a book about women needing to trust their intuition when it comes to interacting with guys in their daily life, not ignoring the red flags and all.
So he went and wrote a story where a girl does everything wrong.
Yeah, you did just that, except EVERYONE acts like this, not just the heroine.
It also falls into the trope of modern films acting as if women can only be strong and capable if all men are either evil, weak, stupid or all of the above.
My theory is that this is the reason why critics loved the film. Not the quality of it, just that it had the right heroine and message.
It's sad, because the film could have been great, just a little less interest in making it about the message, a bit better in the presentation and writing of the characters and this might all have worked out.
But hey, logic, characterization, plot etc.. it all doesn't matter if you have the right message. Again, this is something that has basically become a trend in modern horror films. - jarodvermilyea - 29 May 2024
First to early middle of the movie is very good.... and that's it.
This movie makes the assumption a completely different story is going on through the first half of the movie, and then once you get to the second half of the movie into the basement or whatever you want to call it, the movie completely does a 180 and bombs hard. Not good whatsoever and a waste of time to watch. I don't know how people gave this movie so much praise because it just doesn't work. If they would've kept the first act the whole movie, it would passed as a decent movie. Maybe I'll give it another watch in the future at some point but seriously this movie is utter trash to me and I wish it could've done so much better with the hype it had around it. - bharatwizard - 10 May 2024
I see pessimistic idiots rating it low, as if they are perfect in their jobs!
The movie is great! Indie, less budget but optimized production value, good cinematography and great acting. You can tell the team has tried to do the most of their limited time, to get this movie made. The best part is it keeps you hooked and holds your attention! But only if you let it, and relax, and stop trying to find faults! Like all things in life! People who have rated it <5, am sure can be forgiven for not knowing nuances of the film making process. But they can't be forgiven to just assume films need to be perfect. Are you perfect in your own job in every project? Most likely not! After reading your dumb reviews am sure you are mid at max!
But then, there is a good possibility they find faults in everything they see..so am lucky am not them!
Enjoy this film folks. Its a great attempt at movie making and will reward the ones who are wise and patient in life! - exagorazo - 12 January 2023
Very unsatisfying.
I went into this one with high expectations from other reviews and hype from around the internet. Unfortunately it was all wind.
The first half of the movie is compelling and atmospheric. The chemistry between the two main characters of this half was top notch, and Skarsgard was believable and just a little creepy.
However, the second half empties all the tension and atmosphere of the first. It's almost as though the writing and directing team left the room and gave it over to a bloke who walked in from the street.
Massively. Disappointing.
Spoilers - in the final act, was I really supposed to believe that 1. AJ heaved Tess over the edge of the water tower one handed?
2. She fell so slowly that the Mother could catch up and position herself between the ground and Tess?
3. That both Tess and the Mother were **completely uninjured** by the fall?!? - MrLou - 10 January 2023
Utter tripe
Seriously, modern horror is rubbish going by this.
The characters are written awfully, the premise is just waffle and the antagonist is laughable. A waste of nearly 2 hours. How this won an award I don't know.
I genuinely hoped the leads died. O mean, are people in the States that naive, shallow and nauseating? Thus resulting in film makers drawing on the intellect (or lack there of) and thought processes of those within their society? "We need to get 2 people in a house"
"Let's have them double book an air bnb because if that happened in the real world, they'd happily share the place for one night"
It's not even convoluted because would take actual thought. Just outright lazy.
The scariest thing is, I'd seen high praise for this movie. - JeanMoniette - 7 January 2023
1 star for long, 1 star for Campbell
This movie is a product - essentially a marketing ploy leveraging the recent (but already tired) trope of 'not too scary' horror movies + having the guy who played the clown from "IT" == box office.
Undoubtedly, it's very well acted. Justin Long is PERFECT in the role he's given here and I haven't seen him doing so well since "idiocracy". And Campbell fills the shoes of the 'sane person in a mad world' perfectly.
The movie is also relatively well directed, even though at times the CGI is very evident and the constant focus length shift, some extreme (fisheye is used extensively throughout), are getting really tiring quickly.
So what's wrong with this movie? Well, someone wise once said a movie is about 3 things: "the script, the script and the script". And this is where "barbarian" fails. Sure, there's an interesting '2 movies into one' angle which has already been done to death (Pulp Fiction anyone? Or any GoT season for that matter). But overall, it makes very little sense, and commits the act to not to be consistent to rules that were established earlier in the movie.
In fact, nothing is established, except for the interaction between "mr IT clown" and Campbell, which is supposed to trick you in on direction while pushing you off a cliff in the other. But despite Long's amazing acting effort, it just... well it doesn't work.
The back story is plain jane, and only Detroit locals will chuckle at the auto-derision and references to the city's glorious past and gloomy present.
Successfully delivering a failed concept is no success - sadly this a two. Neither scary not intriguing. Just - boring with a good bit of acting from Long. - dqfkxykd - 5 January 2023
Insists on being more than what it is
First halve of this film plays like a Norman Bates-esque suspense, centered around two people who are seemingly double-booked in the same house through an online rental-service, and are forced to spend the night together.
Then, around the 45 minute mark, movie shifts and become something else entirely, introducing new characters, and themes, and the seriousness is replaced with a satirical tone, or rather straight up goofball.
It's really odd. Because of this, it succeeds not as a horror, and not quite as a satire. It's not scary, truth. Absolutely nothing new to be had here. I heard great things about it, and so I watched it with anticipation, but ultimately just a huge, cliched, and scrambled mess of a movie.
Gore is 5/10 Movie is 5.5/10. - maeina - 3 January 2023
Was I the only person who felt their heartstrings drawn lastly in the movie?
This movie.. it feels like two separate movies by two separate directors going in opposite directions. Both have promise but not together.
But I did not guess on that I'd feel a small tear when the woman said baby and showed such compassion in the end. She's not a monster but her father is. Through extensive inbreeding and god knows what more this is probably not to far of from what you'd get if it DID happen.
She probably couldn't get a baby because she was so destroyed from the birth and this made two things become issues; One; daddy won't get more ways for inbreeding.
Two; It is probably the only thing she wants. Dad has probably tried her through her life and she might feel like that's the only purpose she has. Broken both physically and mentally from the start.
I wish there was a good ending for her sooner. - bjornrhein - 1 January 2023
Like so many already said,,,
,,, the first half is awesome, then something change, its like the writer went to bed and his 12 year little kid finished it because its like 2 different stories , just when I thought this is the best movie 2022 it turn around , acting went also horrible, the creepy aura that surrounded the movie felt down like a metroid and the story that so far had been brilliant smart twisted round to be silly and stupid
What will you do if you find a chamber in your cellery? Call the police perhaps,, well some people start to messure it instead and plan to rent it out ,,, not even explore it , and even know someone is there ,,
This could had been a truly masterpiece but fade out to a pale silly movie, its sad actually. - naufalziqri - 30 December 2022
Actually a pretty good movie
I actually enjoyed the first act quite a lot. It was very well done, the suspense was there and as each scene became more and more mysterious it really kept me at the edge of my seat (not literally, I watched this movie on my phone laying on my bed). The scene where bill skarsgard's character was crawling forward in that underground tunnel is nothing short of terrifying.
Now don't get me wrong, I did also enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd act. I think it was smart and refreshing (not a lot of movie has done this, the flahsback thingy). However, i do agree with some of the reviews that think the latter half of the movie is rushed. I think a lot of things are left unanswered, like what that creature really is, why is it living down there, why does it have superhuman strength, etc. The movie ended in sort of a cliffhanger, which was probably intentional but very annoying for the audience.
Hoping there'd be a sequel to this movie.
