BARBARIAN (2022)

Studio:     20th Century Studios
Director:    Zach Cregger
Writer:     Zach Cregger
Producer:  Arnon Milchan, Roy Lee, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz
Stars:     Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis, Richard Brake, Jaymes Butler, Kurt Braunohler

Review Score:

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Summary:

An apparent double booking at a rental house in Detroit begins a strange, nightmarish experience for an unsuspecting woman.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Having come to Detroit for a job interview, Tess Marshall arrives at a rental house in the impoverished neighborhood of Brightmoor to find the home is already occupied by Keith Toshko, who claims he also rented the same property. Concluding that the house was accidentally double booked and they can sort it out in the morning, Keith invites Tess to stay with him anyway since it is dark, raining, and a convention leaves local hotels without any vacancies. After overcoming initial wariness that Keith might be lying or have malicious intentions, the two boarders eventually connect on common ground regarding their professions and take a mutual interest in one another.

Woken by noises in the night, Tess finds her bedroom door ajar. Tess rouses Keith, who merely expresses confusion at Tess’s concerns about noises and the open door.

Tess wakes the next morning to find Keith already left for the day. Once outside in the daylight, Tess observes that derelict houses populate the surrounding neighborhood. The woman with whom Tess interviews later confirms that Tess should not be staying in Brightmoor.

When she returns to the house, a homeless man named Andre seemingly chases Tess while shouting a warning. Tess hurries inside and calls the police, but no officers respond.

Tess accidentally locks herself in the basement while retrieving replacement toilet paper. In the cellar, Tess discovers a passageway behind a secret door that leads to a room with a dirty mattress, a bucket, a camera, and a handprint on the wall.

Keith returns to the house and gets Tess out of the basement. After explaining the disturbing dungeon room she discovered, Tess insists they have to leave immediately. Before he is willing to do so, however, Keith insists on seeing the room for himself, despite Tess imploring him not to.

When Keith fails to return promptly, Tess explores the passageway again and discovers another door leading to a staircase. Tess descends into a subterranean cavern where she eventually finds Keith screaming for help. Just after Keith warns Tess that there is someone else down there, a feral woman referred to as “The Mother” suddenly beats Keith to death.

Facing massive legal fees as a result of an unexpected sexual assault allegation, disgraced actor AJ Gilbride returns to his hometown of Detroit to liquidate properties he owns, which include the house where Tess and Keith were staying. Eventually, AJ investigates the hidden subterranean chamber and has a frightful encounter with Mother.

Mother imprisons AJ with Tess, who warns AJ to remain quiet so he doesn’t upset Mother. Mother passes a baby bottle through a grate and forces both of them to drink from its nipple. Tess explains to AJ that Mother wants to treat them like her babies.

When Mother pulls AJ away to forcibly breastfeed him, Tess uses the opportunity to escape. Andre helps pull Tess outside through a basement window. Tess insists on going back to rescue AJ, but Andre warns that Mother isn’t the worst thing in the house and they’d be better off fleeing before nightfall.

Tess runs to a gas station where she calls the police. Tess explains what happened to her and takes two officers back to the house, but they dismiss Tess as a raving drug addict and leave without investigating anything.

Looking for a way out of the basement, AJ discovers a room with a bedridden old man named Frank, who previously owned the house. A flashback to the 1980s reveals Frank was a prolific serial killer who used the home’s secret chamber to imprison and torture kidnapped women. Initially assuming Frank to be another of Mother’s captives, AJ promises to have the place swarming with cops soon. AJ then realizes Frank is a sadistic murderer when he discovers a massive collection of VHS tapes for all of Frank’s victims. Frank uses what little strength he has left to retrieve a handgun from a nightstand and shoot himself.

Tess returns to her vehicle in front of the house. Mother suddenly bursts out of the front door and charges at Tess’s car. Tess drives into Mother to pin her against the house.

With Mother seemingly dead or disabled, Tess goes back to the basement to look for AJ. Startled, AJ inadvertently shoots Tess with Frank’s gun. AJ apologetically helps Tess limp outside where they discover Mother is missing.

Tess leads AJ to Andre. Andre recounts how Mother was born in captivity 40 years ago as a multigenerational victim of Frank’s ongoing cycle of impregnation and incest over several decades. Mother suddenly bursts into Andre’s hideout and tears him apart.

Tess and AJ climb up a tower to get away from Mother. AJ drops Frank’s handgun, but realizes he stands a chance of escaping if he sacrifices Tess. AJ throws Tess off of the tower and shouts at Mother to get her “baby.” Mother dives after Tess. Both women collapse on the pavement.

AJ returns to the ground to check on Tess. Mother suddenly strangles AJ, pokes his eyes out, and tears his head apart. Pointing back toward the house, Mother makes a move to cradle Tess. Tess recovers the dropped handgun and shoots Mother in her head. Tess rises to her feet and begins limping away.

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Review:

If you heard about “Barbarian” from someone who had already seen it, chances are that person probably told you something along the lines of, “Trust me, it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible.” (Unless that person is a jackass who delights in ruining someone else’s fun, of course.) Even if you tried to follow up with, “Well, what is it even about,” hopefully that same person continued insisting, “Seriously, telling you just a little bit could risk telling you too much.”

It’s true. “Barbarian” conceals its secrets incredibly well, making it one of those all-too-infrequent experiences in horror that can shock and surprise even the most jaded fright film fan who thinks they’ve seen it all. So if you are at all able in this online world where the internet often spoils everything ahead of time, it’s in your own entertainment’s best interests to put on a blindfold, outstretch your hands toward the dark unknown, and descend into “Barbarian’s” dark corridors for a creatively clever creeper that’s certain to rattle your nerves.

Some details can still be divulged to shape a sense of the setup without giving away anything more than the trailer reveals. “Barbarian” opens on Tess. She’s in Detroit for a job interview, where the nighttime combined with a rainstorm prevents her from seeing that her Airbnb sits in a crime-ridden neighborhood populated by derelict houses. What she does see is that the home she rented apparently has a boarder already. Keith claims he booked the same property through a different service, and has the confirmation to prove it, although Tess isn’t quite sure what to believe.

After resolving initial awkwardness over their unanticipated encounter, Keith invites Tess inside to see what they can figure out. Then, after calls to local hotels confirm a convention has exhausted any potential vacancies, Keith bends over backwards proposing arrangements that could make a cohabitating stay comfortable for both strangers.

From that description, you might think you see where this situation is heading. Tess thinks she does too. That’s why, as a woman alone in an unfamiliar place with a man she just met, she starts making smart moves for her own personal protection.

Tess confirms through unpacked toiletries that Keith seems to be a traveler like herself. Spotting his wallet on a dresser, Tess takes a quick photo of Keith’s driver’s license, you know, just in case. And when Keith prepares her a cup of tea, Tess eyes the mug with suspicion since who knows what he could have slipped in there while she wasn’t looking.

It’s always refreshing, not to mention rare, to see someone in a horror movie avoid the dumb mistakes horror movie characters typically make when their decisions are directed by lazy scripting. Tess has to take some less intelligent actions later to push the plot forward, but Georgina Campbell’s performance establishes her as being savvy enough that those “Don’t go in there!” behaviors become intense nail-biters of crowd-pleasing suspense instead of reasons to roll one’s eyes at ridiculousness.

Considering how these characters are built to have multiple modes, and the audience isn’t meant to know which switches might get flipped or when, the terrific cast becomes a big boon for “Barbarian.” Just as Campbell imbues Tess with even amounts of cautiousness and carelessness, Bill Skarsgard comes with the prime presence to give Keith a concurrent air of creepiness and charisma. Maybe he has murderous motives. Maybe he doesn’t. Sharp acting leads us to believe more than one possibility is always in play for both people since each personality possesses more than one dimension.

“Barbarian” continues economically establishing primary players by introducing AJ, an actor whose previously promising career was just unexpectedly MeToo’ed by a rape allegation. When Tess and Keith’s arc reaches a pausing point, which comes around halfway through the runtime, the story suddenly switches to AJ. This won’t be the last time “Barbarian” rips out a carpet, as catching viewers unaware in the midst of macabre moments is one of writer/director Zach Cregger’s specialties.

To tell the truth, I’d grown weary of Justin Long, who plays AJ. Starting with “Ed” and going all the way through his hilarious cameos on “Inside Amy Schumer,” Long regularly entertained me until his ongoing appearances in lower-grade genre fare put a sour taste of overexposure on my tongue.

But AJ is a role catering specifically to Long’s projected persona. You get to dislike him, mutter “Good!” when bad things happen, chuckle at his bumbling antics like using “Dude” the way Smurfs use “Smurf,” and even root for his spotty heroism as well. It all works together so we initially see AJ as a cartoony cad who isn’t totally defined by the single trait of being an accused abuser, which by extension provides a little levity to relieve some tension from the film’s unsettling first half.

POSSIBLE CONTEXT CLUE SPOILERS

This is an easy review to wrap up because the effectiveness of “Barbarian’s” fiction pretty much demands that I zip my lip and stop right here. Besides simply saying that the movie earns an enthusiastic recommendation, I’ll risk possible spoilers by adding that it’s a far improved take on the thrills featured in “Don’t Breathe” (review here), i.e. sinister things happen inside a suburban home’s hidden nooks, except “Barbarian’s” baby bottle tests boundaries in a far more entertaining fashion than resorting to something as tasteless as “Don’t Breathe’s” turkey baster. Should another analogy be needed, I’d liken “Barbarian” to “Malignant” (review here), and by that I mean it’s 2022’s weirdest horror movie whose wildness is guaranteed to knock unsuspecting audiences off guard.

Review Score: 85

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