Movie Review: BARBARIAN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 8th, 2022 / 07:26 PM

Rating: R
Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis, Richard Brake
Writer: Zach Cregger
Director: Zach Cregger
Distributor: 20^th Century Studios
Release Date: September 9, 2022

‘Tis a dark and stormy night when Tess (Georgina Campbell) pulls up in front of the Airbnb she’s rented in a dismally rundown Detroit neighborhood. To her surprise and dismay, Tess encounters Keith (Bill Skarsgård), who is already in residence and says that he’s also rented this place. After a bit of initial shouting, things calm down. Keith is gentlemanly and uncommonly thoughtful about the sensible fears a young woman like Tess might have about the situation, and about him. Tess warms up to Keith. Détente is reached. Tess spends the night in the bed, Keith sleeps on the couch. But during the night, Tess’s door opens. She wakes up to find Keith on the couch, moaning, apparently in the throes of a nightmare. And then …

Since much of the fun of BARBARIAN is trying to figure out what exactly is going on here, more should probably not be said about the plot. Viewers who want to make educated guesses shouldn’t watch, or at least should ignore, the trailers. For once, this is not because the trailers spoil things, but rather because they are extremely misleading. The BARBARIAN poster is conceptually informative. The title looms above an image of Tess staring downward in astonishment through a rough-looking interior doorway. Puzzling over how the word links up with the picture is very much in keeping with the BARBARIAN experience. To be clear, there are no Conan or Visigoth or Viking raider types here. There wind up being several contenders for the moniker “barbarian,” though. Of course, since most of the action takes place on a street called Barbary, presumably all of its inhabitants would qualify as “Barbarians.” Director/writer Zach Cregger comes up with some truly funny lines and concepts in the midst of horror that exists on several levels. While people’s mileage may vary on this, he is careful with how he treats some subject matter, which feeling free to be outrageous in other areas.

There’s so much going on that BARBARIAN achieves a somewhat novelistic feel, despite its increasingly swift hour-and-forty-seven-minute running time. Cregger and his production team have also done a bang-up job of recreating American suburban decay on their primarily Eastern European locations, as well as a splendidly creepy interior. Campbell radiates intelligence, integrity and compassion. Skarsgård excels at both charm and menace, sometimes alternating and sometimes simultaneously. Justin Long plays A.J., who enters the proceedings partway through. While he’s far easier to read than Skarsgård’s Keith, Long and Cregger still keep us going back and forth on A.J. until the final reel. Praise should also be given to Matthew Patrick Davis, who delivers a committed, hugely physical performance.

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