Barbarian: The Most Exciting Horror Movie of 2022

Spoiler-Free Section

Barbarian is a 2022 horror movie about a woman who gets double booked for an Airbnb and finds a mysterious tunnel in the basement. It stars Georgina Campbell (Murdered by My Boyfriend), Bill Skarsgård (IT), and Justin Long (Tusk). Barbarian is one of the most refreshing and exciting horror movies I have ever experienced. It is an exhilarating ride of suspense and scares that will render you speechless. This movie lasts 103 minutes and is rated R for strong violence and gore, disturbing material, language throughout, and nudity.

In the spoiler-free section, I want to say that if you are interested in seeing this movie, go in as blind as possible. Watch Barbarian with an open mind and be prepared for anything. Watch it with friends and have a night with it because it is exceptional. So if you have not seen Barbarian and want to go in completely blind, do not read any further.

Barbarian revitalized my love for horror movies because it doesn't let you have anything for free. Suppose you aren't familiar with the horror genre and its tropes. In that case, this movie won't necessarily appeal to you because Barbarian weaponizes your expectations against you. Just when you think you have this movie down and you know what's going to happen next, it throws a curveball and makes a first-time viewing unforgettable. I watched this movie with very few people, but that was enough to have a 10/10 experience.

The entire first act is some of the best suspense I have seen in my 15 years of life; even though nothing is happening, you expect something will happen. The way Barbarian uses what you know about the genre and manipulates that to make even a teacup terrifying is masterful.

Let’s talk about the men in this film and how extremely purposeful the casting of Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long was. This movie is about subverting your expectations, and they do that on a whole new level with the casting. Bill Skarsgård’s most famous roles are Pennywise from IT (2017) and IT: Chapter 2 (2019), so when he is cast in a horror movie, you would infer that he would be an antagonist. The trailers and the first act of Barbarian play into that preconceived notion that Skarsgård will be the scary bad guy. So with that expectation going into it, the audience is shocked when he gets his head bashed into a wall by the creepy naked grandma (or CNG) at the end of the first act.

Justin Long is known for playing charismatic and funny characters like in Dodgeball (2004). So when his character in Barbarian, AJ, is presented to us in this red convertible, singing along with his music while driving down a sunny beachside road, he would seem like a fun guy, right? You would be poorly mistaken, for when he gets a phone call, he is told that an actress that he was directing for a pilot came out with an accusation that he sexually assaulted her.

At the root of all these creepy naked grandmas and dark underground tunnels is a cautionary tale of what can sometimes happen when you go off the first assumption of someone. When most audience members and I watched these two subversions of expectations, they felt betrayed. You know how you felt when you first met the prominent male characters and how nothing was what it looked like at first glance; that is the linchpin to what this film is saying: how you can be taken advantage of by people you thought couldn’t hurt a fly or look like they hunt for sport.

AJ’s behavior throughout Barbarian showed signs that he’s a mega male manipulator. One of his major defining characteristics is that he will try to justify his actions no matter how severe the consequences. For example, he justified his sexual assault allegations by saying, “I’m just a persistent guy.” The way he says that shows that he genuinely thinks he did nothing wrong.

One moment I want to point out is when AJ finds the old man who assaulted all of those women in that camera room. AJ finds the videotapes of the old man, and he puts one of the tapes in. We don’t see what is on the tape, but we know what’s on them. Then AJ says, “How dare you do those disgusting things to those women, what do you have to say for yourself?” The inability to be self-aware and realize that he also sexually assaulted someone, with the old man's case more severe, but nevertheless, he’s still hypocritical. Then later, it seems like AJ realizes what he did and needs to be a better person. Yet 2 minutes later, he throws the main character, Tess, off a water tower.

In the third act of Barbarian, AJ commits multiple offenses that support that he is a scumbag. For example, he mistakenly shoots Tess, blames her, and denies her emotions. When the “CNG” attacks the homeless man, AJ just runs away, leaving the wounded Tess behind to die. Then, as previously mentioned, he throws her off a water tower and proceeds to make it her fault that he threw her off. His actions lend to the idea that Barbarian is trying to convey that some abusers will never learn their lesson.

Bill Skarsgård’s Keith is a very socially awkward guy who is trying, with limited social skills, to help make a woman feel safe in a weird situation. Nothing is wrong with that, but he came off to Tess and the audience as creepy and off-putting. Now, as for Keith- we love Keith but only in retrospect, sadly. Everything Keith does can be interpreted in a hopeful or fearful view. He is either a weird guy who can't communicate well or someone who has ulterior motives. Since Bill Skarsgård has played antagonists in the past, the audience immediately thinks that of every character he plays.

For example, the cup of tea can lend to this assumption of evil intentions. The shot in which we are introduced to this cup is perfect because it presents something in light that directly implies it as sinister. The teacup mirrors how Keith is shown in the entire first act, as way more threatening and dangerous than he truly is.

Now that we are far enough in let's talk about the creepy naked grandma (CNG). To be straightforward, the CNG is a personification of Tess and her defense mechanism against men. Did you see how the CNG treated AJ until the water tower and then killed him after AJ had passed redemption? When Keith tries to keep Tess in the tunnels, and she becomes afraid of him, that's when the CNG first appears and kills Keith. The CNG is caring but brutal, just like Tess, which is why it wants Tess to be its baby.

Ok, it’s tin foil hat time. So you know the old man that originally owned the house and built that first room with the camera? As the homeless man said, the old man would take women to that room, breed with them, make them pregnant, and then get their daughters pregnant. Slowly making an ultra-inbred baby who is the creepy naked grandma.

In conclusion, Barbarian is a masterclass in misdirection and suspense while having an unconventional story structure and characters that use your expectations against you. I have had a blast over the last month I spent thinking about this amazing film and working through the vague and subtle details that enhance my rewatches. Watch Barbarian when it becomes available on physical and digital home media forms when they become available and form your own opinion.

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