Barbarian
The Airbnb is given a bad press in a surprisingly chilling, smart and funny horror film that plays by its own rules.
A step behind: Georgina Campbell
What is it with comedians and horror? The comedian Jordan Peele turned to horror with Get Out, Us and Nope and virtually made the genre of intelligent, original horror his own. Now comes Zach Cregger, who co-founded the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know. While adhering to the mandatory requirements of the genre – shock, horror and extreme gore – Cregger corkscrews his way into the heart of darkness by ditching the clichés and formula. But he still knows what makes us squirm.
Perhaps ironically, Barbarian starts on a dark and stormy night. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) pulls up in front of a bungalow in a downpour, somewhere on the outskirts of Detroit. She has rented an Airbnb for the night in order to attend a job interview the following morning. But when she turns up at the front door, there’s no key in the lockbox. She rings the rental agent but is put through to voicemail. Then, back in the relative safety of her Cherokee jeep, she notices a light flick on in the darkened house. Back on the porch, she frantically pushes the buzzer and is greeted by the figure of a man who appears to have just woken up. He, Keith (Bill Skarsgård), claims to have booked the lodging himself, on the same night – albeit through a rival accommodation agent. After they’ve shown each other their respective booking forms, they opt to spend the night together, as a medical convention in the city seems to have filled up all the available hotels. Obligingly, Keith allows Trish to sleep in the bedroom and even agrees to wash the sheets for her (Trish has a thing about fresh bedlinen), and while they wait for the washing machine to complete its cycle, they strike up something of a rapport. It transpires that they share an interest in John Coltrane and the strained dynamic between the two strangers remains in the realm of the plausible. He is the perfect gentleman and she is smart enough to maintain an emotional distance. Of course, Zach Cregger is playing on our preconceptions of horror and he knows that most characters in these kinds of films don’t usually behave so rationally. But we, the audience, also know that Barbarian has an 18 certificate…
If the movie’s final premise is far-fetched and ultimately ludicrous, the way there is genuinely edgy and unnerving – and funny. And by drawing on such topical elements as urban decay and the cancel culture of Hollywood, Cregger brings a modern touch to the tropes of his chosen field. Throw in some surprisingly sudden cutaways, neat camera angles, background out-of-focus imagery and moments of jarring silence and Barbarian is fresh as well as frightening. And it should prove even more unsettling for those still living in Detroit.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis, Richard Brake, Jaymes Butler, Kurt Braunohler, Sophie Sorensen, Rachel Fowler, J.R. Esposito, Kate Nichols, Kate Bosworth, Sara Paxton, Zach Cregger, Will Greenberg.
Dir Zach Cregger, Pro Arnon Milchan, Roy Lee, Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz, Screenplay Zach Cregger, Ph Zach Kuperstein, Pro Des Rossitsa Bakeva, Ed Joe Murphy, Music Anna Drubich, Costumes Kiril Naumov, Sound Matt Davies.
Regency Enterprises/Almost Never Films/Hammerstone Studios/BoulderLight Pictures/Vertigo Entertainment-20th Century Studios.
102 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 9 September 2022. UK Rel: 28 October 2022. Cert. 18.
