Review: BARBARIAN (2022)
The best comedy and horror feel like they take place in reality. You have a rule or two you are bending or heightening, but the world around it is real. I felt like everything I learned in comedy I could apply to this movie.
— Jordan Peele
It’s been said by many people far smarter than I am that comedy and horror are intrinsically linked. In many works, humor is used to dissipate tension, allow for misdirection, and also humanize the characters into more relatable figures. But they also require very similar skillsets in order to accomplish them well. A mastery of timing needed to know how long to set up a gag and when to hit a punchline is not that different from how to maintain tension until it pays off in a successful scare. Both comedies and horror movies rely on managing and subverting expectations—when you know how everything will play out in either, it becomes tedious. Instead there has to be a way to find something new (and a bit dangerous) in the more relatable and familiar aspects.
One other element shared by both genres of filmmaking is the ability to quickly establish characters in a pithy manner where you understand a lot about them and are then able to either care about or despise them. It’s an important shorthand when setting up scenarios devoid of exposition (or sequences with high body counts). Little aspects communicated through specific ways of speaking, acting, and costumes shine a light into particular characters to endear or vilify them.
What does this have to do with BARBARIAN? The brilliantly executed new horror film is written and directed by Zach Cregger, best known for his work in comedies with the troupe Whitest Kids U’Know and movies like MISS MARCH. Cregger takes that background in comedy, complete with all of those honed skills mentioned above, and applies it expertly to its related genre to produce something grisly, hilarious, surprising, creepy, and all around a great time at the theater. Is BARBARIAN completely new? Not especially as you can see the DNA of WRONG TURN, DON’T BREATHE, THE UNSEEN, [REC], and HOSTEL amidst its reels. But it’s the way these genetic predecessors are combined and deployed that makes for an innovative event that is grossly entertaining and a terrific new entry in modern horror.
Tess (Georgina Campbell) has rented an Air BnB while visiting Detroit for a job interview.
She is surprised to find another renter, Keith (Bill Skarsgård), is already in the house as the duo were double-booked for the same space. There are no hotel rooms available and the area is pretty desolate and creepy, leaving the two of them to figure out an arrangement for their stay. Soon it appears there is something more to this house than previously noticed.
The owner of the property, actor A.J. (Justin Long), is headed back to Michigan under a cloud of suspicion only to be confronted by a new set of unforeseen circumstances. Soon the history of this house and its dark legacy becomes all too clear.
That all sounds very vague on purpose—the less known about BARBARIAN, the more exciting the experience. That doesn’t mean it only relies on shocks and twists, far from it, but those moments of sudden terror and various plot developments are pieces in the over all tapestry of horror that Cregger has built.
(Speaking of going in cold, you may or may not want to watch this trailer—dealer’s choice.)
Hitchcock once talked about the difference between surprise and suspense. He said that if a bomb were to suddenly go off under a table, that would be a surprise. As noted, BARBARIAN has many startles with characters suddenly appearing or using the darkness to cloak some new terrifying form. Hitchcock continued that if the everyone but the people at the table knew there was a ticking time bomb set to go off, that would be suspense. Because the audience would want to warn those people, or they are wondering if those at the table will leave in time, or will something go awry before the counter hits zero?
Cregger brilliantly utilizes suspense not in clueing in viewers to the danger present, but leaning on the strong implications that something fucked up is going on here. Ominous music, weird circumstances, off-putting camera angles and more allow the dread to permeate the moment, leaving those watching trying to figure out where the threat will come from and what it will look like. (Spoiler Alert: They will not be able to guess correctly.)
In fact, it’s the surprises and the suspense working in tandem that make BARBARIAN such a great movie experience. The suspense builds until something is revealed, and then it becomes a breakneck slalom around these startling new developments, only for the cycle to repeat in increasingly harrowing ways.
Campbell, Skarsgård, and Long are tremendous in their roles (as is the entire cast, which is not expansive but also best not to dive into who they all are). They are each playing wholly different kinds of characters but they feel completely fleshed out, complicated in interesting ways that are easily recognizable as people you know and compelling to see how they react to their horrific situations.
This is aided by a particularly creepy score by Anna Drubich, which ratchets up the tension and provides the proper audio stings that still never feel obnoxiously intrusive (as is common in many horror movies). And DP Zach Kuperstein does a great job making different parts of the film feel normal but cold (in a foreboding manner), but then grimy and gross, and using various techniques and lenses to command the emotions of a scene. All while embracing the literal darkness to make BARBARIAN feel more dangerous than many other recent genre entries, and especially more grisly even though there are far gorier films.
Cregger and company wisely chose to make the film have a palpable element to the events, feeling the characters’ sweat and tears pour out of them amidst their struggles. Many recent horror titles have aimed to be prestige works (looking at you, A24) and thus have an overly polished feel.
Which is fine for some movies, but a cruel thriller like this demands a more tactile approach.
Firing on all cylinders, this is a wild gauntlet of emotions that will provide moments of comedic relief, absolute shock at a disgusting development, encroaching fear of the unknown that awaits, and genuine sympathy for many of the characters caught up in this plight.
BARBARIAN is exciting, terrifying, funny, smart, visceral, and more. It’s something that horror geeks will excitedly talk about with their friends and make sure everyone watches it (with as little information beforehand as possible) to gauge their reactions. It’s the type of movie that non-horror fans will be freaked out by, and possibly upset at their genre nerd associates for recommending it. By using the craft and language of comedies in a different genre, Cregger has produced a thoroughly entertaining cinematic experience in BARBARIAN, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.