Barbarian starring Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, and Georgina Campbell, was directed by Zach Cregger and was published by 20th Century Studios.

Nate Carr

Barbarian is a movie focused on its characters. Its disturbing ideas are plentiful but not all-consuming. Director Zach Cregger gives both the characters and the audience something to think about while using violence and grotesquerie as a mere backdrop. They exist not for their own sake as entertainment but rather to evoke something in us. Despite its name, Barbarian doesn’t indulge the audience’s animalistic bloodthirst but rather shows restraint. In doing so, it forces the audience to sit with the characters and think. Conversely, the characters are forced to react immediately, which not only gives us great insight into them but more importantly into ourselves. 

Barbarian is a movie about power. The sickening events unfold in the manner they do because of the self-serving choices of a few men. It humanizes these men but doesn’t sanitize them. Their monstrous nature of their acts are never in question, but you still feel their humanity as you watch their painful downfalls.

Barbarian is a movie about survival. We mainly follow one woman’s journey into a house of horror and her struggle to escape it while helping others. It’s her bravery and compassion that shine through this very dark film.

Barbarian is a movie about decay. The film shows us the downfall of a city, the dissolution of a community, and the rot of moral character. Imagery of decay is everywhere but it isn’t superficial. Our expectations are subverted when the only nice house in town turns out to be the most wicked.

Barbarian is a movie focused on our choices and you should make the choice to watch it.

Patrick Pané

“The Real Barbarian was the Real Estate market all along”

Barbarian, when I hear that I think of a viking warrior, some gaul fighting Rome, certainly not a movie about a double booked Airbnb in Detroit. Barbarian, though, is appropriate as the movie grapples with the barbarity of not just individuals but systems. Following the main character Tess for the majority of the movie gives the watcher the point of view of a woman stuck with a mysterious man. The systems that Tess interacts with and the assumptions made because of identity are the crux of the movie, not the blood or the scares.

This is a movie to go into with as little information as possible. Having no knowledge of the conflict of the movie gives it a sense of thrill that most horror fails to tap into. So to be clear, the movie is good and you should watch it if you like horror. If you are fine with spoilers, continue reading at your own peril.

Barbarians main advantage comes from its sense of tension and mystery. Keith is unnerving and mysterious as played by the ever bug eyed Bill Skarsgard,. Keith’s true colors are shown in one of the movie’s most tense scenes, after a mysterious basement is found and both Tess and Keith venture down. After the reveal, the movie has a complete switch in tone and characters as it switches the point of view from Tess in the house to A.J, a Hollywood star and alleged rapist. 

It is heavily implied that he did it, and his slimy quick witted persona provides some comic relief along with thematic elements. Upon finding the mysterious basement, his first thought is to see if it counts for the square footage of the house so he can sell or rent it out for more money. He goes past the basement door which seems to have a faulty lock and enters the mysterious basement, all for his greed. Of course the door locks behind him. The magical horror-gate now immerses the audience back into full grotesquery, chalking the score up to door 3, humanity 0. 

Finally though, there is one extra wrinkle that is added onto the movie. There’s a flashback to about 40 years before the current timeline showing a new character who is shown to have set this all in motion. During Reagan-era America, he was able to get away with horrific, barbaric acts (from the dispositions of the time along with the abandonment of Detroit) that a horror metaphor resulted, leading to the plot events of the film.

The film’s many inspirations shine throughout the rest of the movie- from tight corridors to the rundown sprawls of abandoned Detroit neighborhoods. As the movie progresses, the multitudes of horror inspirations are made clear– from gorey slasher to supernatural thriller to psychological suspense . These additions really help the movie and are done smartly, rather than feeling contrived. While Barbarian does wear its inspirations on its sleeve, it keeps its own identity. It’s a good time all the way through. Near the end, the movie gets a lot more slasher-esque – a fun way to reward viewers for getting all the way through and solving the mystery. 

The movie closes more emotionally than I would have expected, the true evil revealed to be far more systemic than initially appeared. Thematically, the film is very cohesive – which is clearly a very intentional choice – even if the style is not. The barbarity of the main villain, a man living in what seems to be Reagan-era America who engages in horrific acts, is mirrored by AJ and his self-centeredness. Even in a world forty years after Reagan, nothing has really changed. What Barbarian tackles is far bigger than itself. It is an amazing movie both for its themes and also for its fun. 

Barbarian may not go down as a horror classic but maybe that’s par for the current film climate. Times have changed, the monoculture doesn’t exist anymore, and maybe it’s for the best. And maybe that’s the point.