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Barbarian (2022)

 




Barbarian is about a woman staying at an AirBnB and discovers that there is more to the house she has rented than what was expected.

Written and Directed by Zach Cregger, Barbarian is the third film behind Miss March and The Civil War on Drugs. Both were forgettable and both were before Cregger knew really how to direct. This change is night and day, almost like how Ben Affleck made the switch over from doing Gili in 2003 to The Town in 2010. The writing is just shy of great. A great horror film will keep you wondering just how things will end. There certainly were moments I was wondering just how Cregger would end this film. There are some predictable scenes and certain directorial choices make you believe for a second that something else is happening entirely. There is one scene of exposition I despised and didn't help the storyline at all except pander to audiences that aren't intelligent.

Georgina Campbell plays Tess, the main character. She is expressive and carries the film. She's vulnerable and smart. There are scenes where she does the logical choice unlike many 70s and 80s horror. I had never seen her before in anything but she's probably best known for Black Mirror since most people don't have apple tv and have seen the show Suspicion. 


Bill Skarsgard plays a character who at first you're not sure if you should trust and then later down the line you definitely find out if you were right or wrong. There's a great line in the film where he says "Do I look like a monster?" where I smiled at that thought since he played Pennywise in Steven King's It. I enjoyed his performance for what he did.

Justin Long's character wasn't relatable but every adult audience member could quickly recognize where Cregger was going with this character. He made choices that were suitable for his character and the audience will really want to root against his character's survival. This isn't Long's first horror rodeo as he was in his breakout role for Jeepers Creepers, (some might say Galaxy Quest but I disagree) Tusk, and Idiocracy. Yes, I consider that a horror film. Just look at how scary that film was.

I started with a grade higher than where it settled. I tend to rate horror movies higher at first glance and then upon longer inspection, they go lower for my grading. It started at a low A- and now I'm settled on a B+.

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