Barbarian (2022) - A Strong Start, and then...

Barbarian (2022) was writer & director Zach Creggar's breakout film and was met with a lot of buzz from audiences. The film follows Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) as she arrives at her air BnB, only to discover Keith (Bill Skarsgård) has also booked the property.

What follows is a tense series of scenes where Tess is a rarely seen clever, cautious horror protagonist who is trying to get the true measure of Keith. Skarsgard's performance is particularly helpful in aiding with the mood of these scenes; constantly toeing the line between charming and genuine, to something more sinister. Like Tess, the audience have to decide whether or not to trust this man. As night falls and strange things occur in the house, this only becomes more difficult a conundrum. The horror in this is based in gritty reality.

Just when we get a glimpse of the true mystery of the property, we cut to black.

The film takes a rapid spiral from there.

Suddenly we are following AJ (Justin Long), a hollywood actor accused of sexual assault, en route to sell the property. Long, whilst a competent actor, has a penchant for bringing comedy to horror in a manner that is suitable for the Goosebumps reboot or infamous disturbing b-movie Tusk, but not so much when it comes to the tense psychological terror that Barbarian has promised in it's first half an hour. The character of AJ is meant to be hated; brash and crude and painfully unenjoyable to watch. The atmosphere so well crafted in the first act deflates suddenly, and the film never quite recovers from there.

It may be that Creggar was trying clumsily to say something about sexual assault in Hollywood and characters getting their comeuppance, but if so, the message is lost behind breastfeeding being a gross-out moment at best, and at worst, a poor joke. For some reason, Jess gets lost in a tonal shift, and any decent exploration of her character is forgotten.

Unfortunately, the person who recommended Barbarian to me gave away the twist. This did impact my viewing, as it meant I was waiting for the exposition explanation, which comes much too late and would make a better horror movie in itself. The twist, isolated, is interesting, and yet in this context comes off as disturbing simply to be disturbing. The subject matter itself has been done more effectively several times before, leaving this time to be lack luster and trying desperately for everyone to discuss how disturbing it is, when really it reminds one of Stephen King's fear of naked old ladies.

The cherry on the cake of this is the use of cgi instead of practical effects.

For many, this shock horror and subject matter is a strange and brutal twist that benefits the movie and love the twist in direction. Unfortunately, I feel the film would have benefited from it's tense first act tone carrying through the movie, and a focus on the real horror of the backstory, instead of a'scary naked lady' and comedy that doesn't land.

Barbarian has a strong start, but unfortunately swan dives into mediocre much too fast.