Movie Reaction: Barbarian

Formula: The Strangers + [Redacted]

 

There’s a school of thought in statistical analysis I’ve heard that roughly says, “As soon as you find a way to measure something, it becomes useless”. I’m sure that’s a butchering of the concept, but the idea is that if people are aware that they are being judged by something, that will impact how they do it. It’s the same idea as when an actor starts thinking about what they should do with their hands in a scene. Becoming aware of something calls attention to it.

That’s what makes talking about horror so difficult sometimes: especially a movie like Barbarian. The ideal way to go into Barbarian is knowing that it’s a horror movie and nothing else. By me saying that though, you then are immediately on the lookout for things. If I say you should know nothing about it, that means there’s something you could know that would ruin it. That means there must be a twist. Now, instead of watching the movie wondering what happens next, you are watching it waiting for the big thing you aren’t supposed to know about to happen. It’s a maddening problem. I remember having a similar problem with the movie Shadow in the Cloud. I really enjoyed that movie entirely because I had no idea how bonkers it would be. But the second that I say that it’s bonkers, anyone going to see the movie because of my recommendation goes into it in a totally different mindset than I did.

 

Let me back up then and say that Barbarian is a good horror movie. It’s best to go in without knowing too much about it. That’s not because it depends on twists. It really doesn’t. It’s just way more fun to see what kind of movie it is in real time. From here, I’m going to continue without any concern about spoiling the fun.

 

It’s ironic how much Barbarian has been sold as a mystery, given that it’s a pretty straightforward movie. There’s a house where a serial killer lived. He dug a tunnel system in his basement where he kept and tortured his victims until, through inbreeding of the victims, he made a monster. The mystery of the movie is in how all gets that revealed. It begins with a woman (Georgina Campbell) renting an AirBnb on a dark and stormy night. It turns out the property was double-booked, and a man (Bill Skarsgard) is already in the house. That’s where the playfulness of the movie begins. There are a half dozen horror movie premises built into the first 20-30 minutes. It calls out several of them. Casting Skarsgard – Pennywise himself – as a charming stranger is begging the audience to jump to conclusions. His character even calls it out like a modern-day Wes Craven character. Then we get the weird stirrings as Campbell and Skarsgard sleep. Then we get the reveal that the rest of the neighborhood is in ruins. Then we get the secret room in the basement. Then we get the room in the basement with the camcorder. Then we get the other secret room in the basement. Then we get the tunnels, and the cages, and the nursing videos, and finally the monster. This movie is so good at one-upping itself. It’s kind of like if that scene in Cabin in the Woods when they are in the basement unwittingly choosing their horror movie scenario wasn’t played for laughs.

 

And as soon as we get a glimpse of what the movie really is, it switches to Justin Long in a #MeToo story that doesn’t feel at all related. I loved how jarring that was. It gave the movie an anthology feel. My complaint about a lot of horror is that it’s too long. It’s hard to sustain scares. It’s hard to keep escalating. By cutting to Long then a flashback about the original owner’s origin, Barbarian never has to sit on things too long. The longer I think about it, the more I love this screenplay. It even gets to be pretty funny in the Justin Long segment without puncturing the tension in the rest of the film.

 

I really can’t find a bad thing to say about Barbarian. Between Jordan Peele’s success in the genre and Barbarian’s writer/director, Zach Cregger, coming from a sketch comedy background, I’m ready to welcome any funny person to give their serious horror movie take. It’s yielding strong results. Once the “mystery box” aspect of Barbarian goes away, I’ll be curious how it will be discussed. I think this will play marvelously on rewatch, although I wonder if it will get wrongly slotted as a twist movie; similar to how The Sixth Sense actually holds up really well but many talk about it like the big twist was what was good about it. Barbarian is not just a good secret.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend