You’ve seen barbaric films before, but you haven’t seen a film like The Barbarian. It’s a fan for the horror fan who has seen it all, cause trust me Zachary Cregger delivers subversion after subversion after subversion.
Barbarian is a full house, but it’s not overbooked. It’s always enough and never too much. The direction of the narrative is not as direct as a trip to Detroit. The film starts with Tess discovering her Airbnb is already occupied. She is greeted by the uncomfortably familiar face of Bill Skarsgard in a genius piece of casting. Let’s just say the host will not be receiving any 5 star reviews (for a variety of reasons).
Describing the plot of this film is an awkward task for even the most experienced writer. I honestly think that this film was a word-of-mouth hit because what draws you in is the execution rather than the premise. I for one can’t imagine I would have watched this film if I had not have heard it was one of the best of 2022. I naively thought that it was simply an inverted invasion horror (with the intruder already being in the house), but this is just the start. Cregger drives the narrative into unexpected directions. The film is so much more than it claims to be, while also delivering on its promises: it is certainly a horror about Barbarity.
The marketing is a genius risk. Bold and provocative. I wish I had the guts to mislead its target audience on purpose. Most films would have focused on a plot line introduced about a third into the film. But The Barbarian didn’t. Instead it boldly defied the audience.
As this implies, The Barbarian includes a few disparate narratives brought together to create one clear exploration of barbarity. At the two thirds mark, the audience feels stable in the plot. But, the shocks don’t stop there. So get comfortable being uncomfortable cause The Barbarian is as unfamiliar as a dodgy Airbnb.
Words and Dragons 