Barbarian

 

After seeing Barbarian, I find myself staring that the screen wondering how I even begin to review this movie since so much of it's demented delights are in the surprises it holds. The trailer for the film was wisely enigmatic, hiding as much as possible from the audience and not showing anything beyond the first third of the film. But I will say the film gets so much wilder than I could have possibly imagined and it is all the better for it. It is best seen in the theater with a crowd, everyone reacting together, preferably going in knowing as little as possible. 

Tess Marshall (played by Georgina Campbell) has traveled to Detroit, Michigan for a job interview and rented a small house to stay in. When she arrives, she discovers the house has been double booked and is already occupied by another tenant, Keith Toshko (played by Bill Skarsgard). With it pouring rain and other hotels fully booked, the two begrudgingly agree to share the house with Tess taking the bedroom and Keith taking the couch (there is only one bedroom). The next morning, Tess goes to her job interview and when she tells her interviewer where she is staying is warned she shouldn't stay in that neighborhood. It turns out every house in the neighborhood aside from the one she is staying in is condemned and heavily vandalized. When she returns to the house, she can't help but explore the house a bit, discovering a hidden door in the basement that leads to a series of tunnels that run deep underground the house and probably even the neighborhood. Telling  Keith about what she found, he has to go explore for himself leading them to discover that the two of them are not as alone as they thought. 

The film was written and directed by Zach Cregger and I have to say he has crafted a corker of a tale. Of course, this makes it difficult to review the film because I want to make sure I don't reveal any of the surprises this film has in store for it's audience (and there is more than one, for sure). That said, Cregger juggles these shifts in plot quite well, even as they are jarring for the audience but I think that was the point. There were moments where I wanted to audibly exclaim, "What?!" at the screen throughout, yet I was still having fun with the movie. The hook of the story and how it starts out is even unique, although I have a feeling "untold horrors discovered in the AirBnB" is going to quickly become a new horror movie trope. Throughout the beginning of the movie, I wasn't sure where it was going. The film had me on my toes from the get go, having me second guess everything and wondering when and how this scenario was going to go sideways. I was hooked from the beginning and wondering how the story was going to develop and I love it when a movie is able to do that. 

Georgina Campbell is great as the smart and resourceful Tess. She gives her character real tenacity and smarts as she works through whatever scenario she faces. She gives some real depth to her character and made her one I instantly liked and rooted for to survive. Bill Skarsgard does well with the character of Keith and does an interesting job with the role, giving a performance that could be read one of two ways. His character is already at the AirBnB when Tess arrives and while he is perfectly welcoming, I was never quite sure we could trust him. He goes out of his way to seem trustworthy, offering to make Tess tea to warm up from the cold, rainy night, as well as a bottle of wine, which he waits to open until she is there just so she could make sure he didn't drug it, which is both considerate and yet a curiously specific denial, raising red flags nonetheless. As more weirdness occurs from there, one wonders is it Keith doing it...or something else? Rounding out the main cast is a surprise appearance of Justin Long as A.J Gilbride. He gives a hilarious performance as a sitcom actor who finds himself in the midst of a scandal. How he ties into the story, I will leave for the viewer to discover. However, I was impressed with the depth Long gives to his character as well as giving him a bit more shades of gray than we would normally expect. 

Overall, Barbarian is a movie that I certainly had a blast watching but it may not be for everyone. One's ability or desire to keep up with the shifting tones and dramatic plot twists is going to vary, if the post screening feedback from my friends was anything to go by with some not sure they loved it while others, myself included, enjoyed the craziness. I did find it amusing that the beginning of the movie had the exact same set up as the terrible Netflix Rom-Com Love in the Villa, albeit with very different outcomes between the two movies, of course. I'm not saying one is ripping off the other, especially since both are coming out at the same time, but it is an amusing coincidence that had me chuckling to myself in the theatre.