Review of Barbarian (2022) by Rebecca31 — 09 Nov 2022

If you arrive at a strange house and Bill Skarsgård opens the door just run the other way and keep on running. It really has been a great year for horror movies, and Barbarian has certainly received a lot of hype. Although it didn't quite live up to expectations if you're looking to be scared then Barbarian will do the job.

Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives late at night in the lashing rain to her Airbnb only to find the place is already being rented to someone else. Handsome stranger Keith (Bill Skarsgård) agrees to let Tess stay as it's late in a dodgy neighbourhood and because he's such a gent. Tess continues to ignore the parade of red flags and spends the night in the Airbnb and sure wouldn't you know it, the place ain't quite what it seems.

Here's a horror movie that keeps you on your toes. There's a lot going on here but despite a very promising first act, it does lose its way only to descend into another generic horror movie ending. Tess bless her but she fell into so many of the horror movie tropes I lost count. If you're the type to internally scream every time the main character does something stupid well then you are going to be doing that for a good portion of Barbarian. You may have to restrain yourself from shouting at poor Tess to "run woman run.".

Barbarian is a film that lives up to its title with the men portrayed in this ranging from borderline creepy to absolutely monstrous. It definitely had the right idea to try something new and a lot of it works, I can't go into too much detail as there's already lots of spoilers online. It's dark and twisted but doesn't reveal everything all at once, it tunnels deeper and deeper into more disturbing themes and images and by the third act you're guaranteed to be well and truly grossed out by that point. You'll also get your money's worth because it will scare you without being packed full of cheap jump scares. It's genuinely frightening particularly everything going on in the first act.

It's not the most horrific scary movie I've seen this year, that is well and truly going to Men, there's images in that movie that I'll never be able to unsee. Yet Barbarian is still an original horror that has done amazingly well at the box office. It's important to have more original scary movies like this, Smile, and The Black Phone and less of tired out horror franchises, yes I'm looking at you Michael Myers. Okay sure Barbarian didn't quite live up to my personal expectations but a lot of horror fans out there love it. The only way you'll know for sure is to see it for yourself, highly recommended for all the horror fans.