2022 has been such a great year for the horror genre. Scream 5 kicked off the year with a bang and while there is still more to come this year, Barbarian is making sure the genre doesn’t fade off as the year nears its end. Barbarian, directed by Zach Cregger, does such a job of telling a story that is compelling right off the bat and can switch up on you faster than you can even imagine. The movie is paced incredibly, crafting a truly scary and unnerving story in just over 100 minutes.
The performances by Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long are just incredible here, especially Campbell and Long. This movie has such a tense first half where no matter how calm things seem, there just feels like something is wrong. And once chaos ensues, this movie takes such a turn it feels like a whole new movie, which normally I don’t like but here it worked so well. The story is so compelling that by the end, the emotions I felt were so mixed but so strong. This movie was easily one of my favorite horror movies of the year, and probably up there as one of my favorite movies from this year period. Read below to see my continued thoughts, albeit with Spoilers.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
The first half of this movie is so unsettling that “The Mother” who ultimately is the primary antagonist doesn’t even register in my mind. The plot is essentially two people book the same rental house where Skarsgård’s Keith is already there when Campbell’s Tess arrives. Right here alone is a mini horror story where Keith could be a number of things that can pose a threat to Tess, and I’m happy she is a smart character who has common sense to realize this as well. As the night continues Keith works to show he’s a good guy but at no point during this watch did I think that was the case, even as they started to get to know each other.
Once Tess gets locked in the basement and sees the hidden door and tunnel, that’s when I realized things were not at all as it seemed, (it helps that I did everything I could to know as little as possible about this movie before watching it for the first time) Keith getting attacked and killed by the Mother was such a terrifying jaw dropper that I physically jumped. And then… Justin Long singing an outrageous song driving down the highway. The tone shift worked so well and soon enough we’re back to the horror element as he finds the basement. The ending is much more emotional than I thought as Tess defeats the Mother not out of self-preservation, but for mercy it feels like, which hit home in my opinion.
Overall Barbarian is a movie I highly, highly recommend as it will definitely be on my rewatch list.
