What is “Barbarian”? After a fairly cryptic trailer and a marketing campaign that’s relied more on word of mouth than most would expect, the low budget horror film has had the definition of sleeper hit success and has spread like wildfire throughout the internet and horror movie fan communities. But is it any good?
Directed and written by Zach Cregger (“The Whitest Kids U Know,” “Miss March”), the film follows Tess, played by Georgina Campbell (“Krypton,” “Black Mirror”), who travels to Detroit for a job interview and finds that the Airbnb she’s staying at has been accidentally double booked by Keith, played by Bill Skarsgård (“It (2017,” “Hemlock Grove”), whom she finds staying there when she arrives. The story also comes to involved AJ, played by Justin Long (“Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Tusk”) a sitcom actor who finds himself in Detroit.
A huge selling point of “Barbarian” is that it has become one of those “go in knowing nothing” kind of horror movies, so potential spoiler warning going forward as even slight elements of the plot might be too spoilery for some.
The film’s general tension is excellently crafted, making you feel uneasy even in moments where things should be perfectly safe and calm. It also ties into the clear themes of the film, that of Tess and the red flags set off by everything she encounters as a woman on her own in a new town. Both the tension and these themes loop in on each other wonderfully, crafting a kind of symbiotic horror relationship that strengthens the films scares by getting you invested first.
Campbell is excellent, fully crafting a performance that should catapult her into beloved “scream queen” territory. She’s wonderfully charming but also holds her own in the film’s most dramatic and horrific moments. Its easy to get endeared to her, thanks to the performance and the script, and again, it strengthens the overall film because that connection is directly tied to the horror. Long is great, playing his charming clean persona against itself like Bo Burnham did in “Promising Young Woman” to great effect and he’s responsible for some of the film’s most amusing moments. Skarsgård is also great, playing a kind of charmingly awkward, puppy dog kind of guy that seems against his typical strengths to great effect.
The film’s production design is truly great. “Barbarian” is the kind of movie that, if done right, can turn a location into a character all its own, and the work here absolutely does that. The Airbnb house starts to feel like a member of the cast as things continue, and it results in a place that should feel forgettable becoming one of the film’s most memorable aspects. The same goes for the cinematography, from Zach Kuperstein (“The Eyes of My Mother,” “The Vigil”), which emphasizes the contrasting calm and claustrophobic moments wonderfully.
But is it scary? Well, partially. For the first half of the movie, things are so incredibly tense both due to the filmmaking and the unknown factor of everything that it becomes a kind of teeth grinding affair. However, after about halfway through the film, it stops being scary and turns into kind of a dark comedy. There are still plenty of tense moments, horrific elements, and emotional climaxes, but once the true nature is revealed, it never reaches that peak of tension again.
“Barbarian” is an effectively tense horror flick lead by a phenomenal sense of space and cast of performances. It’s greatly effective in mixing its themes and horror, and it really is the kind of scary movie that’s fun to watch and jump at, even if it becomes less scary in its latter half. There’s not much else to say about it; “Barbarian” is easily worth a stay. 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment