Why is it always the girls who get their hearts ripped out in these things?
Girls can rip. Trust me.
Barbarian got its teeth into me early. The opening scene is essentially the one-line concept for the movie: woman arrives at creepy vacation rental only to discover there’s a guy already there. And going in that was kind of the one thing I knew about the movie (and it’s also the only thing you SHOULD know going in) and yet, as that scene slowly unspooled, taking its time, not doing anything super-flashy, but just slowly building tension, I felt real dread sinking in. And what that is, when you know exactly what this scene is about and yet you’re still on the edge of your seat, that . . . is craft. And that’s the thing that really, for me, just elevated Barbarian to one of the best movies I saw all year.
Director Zach Cregger got his start, like Jordan Peele, in sketch comedy and he understands that horror is like comedy in that it’s a series of builds and releases; everybody talked about this back when Get Out came out, so I don’t need to go into it, but what I’ll say is that Barbarian is just absolutely perfectly crafted. It splits really neatly into three acts and each act follows the same structure, a slow-burn beginning that builds tension, an increasingly scary middle bit and then a climactic explosion of terror and violence. In a way, each of the three acts is its own three act story. As the film progresses, each of the three acts get more intense; by that third act, even the slow burn beginning is quite disturbing and the explosive finale to that act is over-the-top in a way nothing in the film has been before. But the film works in every section and in every tone; the opening act opens with a very long conversation scene between Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgard at the rental house and it’s slow and paced incredibly well and, even as nothing is happening, your senses are alert, scanning for threats, waiting for the horror of this story to reveal itself. But the character work in that scene is quite good and it makes sense to me that the writing process of the movie started with that scene, before Cregger even knew where the rest of the movie was going to go.
But while I’m talking about the meticulous nature of the film, the way every shot is perfectly framed and perfectly timed and the way the match cuts work and the smash cuts work and the slow zooms are perfect, I don’t want to give the impression that this is some kind of a dry technical exercise. Because Barbarian hits on a real level. The performances of the three main actors in the film are all really excellent. You might remember Georgina Campbell from Hang the DJ, the one episode of Black Mirror that won’t send you into existential despair (yes, I’m the one guy still banging on about how there’s a nasty dark undertone to San Junipero that is made all the darker by the fact that NO ONE BUT ME SEES IT). She’s compelling from start to finish here. Bill Skarsgard is perfectly cast as Keith and I think his performance here is actually one of his most nuanced; he has a quiet charm that feels natural, but there’s also something just a little off kilter about him. And Justin Long gives the kind of fantastic performance that you only get when Justin Long is playing an asshole. The film gives these characters interesting beats and they feel like real people, somewhat heightened by circumstance, but real and the ways that they occasionally go in different directions than you think is refreshing. So those characters and performers give the film a real sense of emotion and as the film progresses those emotions go farther and farther into dread, suspense, fear, terror, genuine horror (with some surprising detours into genuinely funny comedy).
It’s a terrifying film and one of the great things about the structure of the movie is the way that each act builds to a kind of terror that’s almost overwhelming. The big climax at the end of the first act is the perfect example; we’ve gotten to a really dark and frightening section of the film after what feels like an eternity of tension building and then suddenly everything explodes and there’s a shot of one of the characters confronting something that I found incredibly disturbing to see and I remember not jumping, but flinching in my seat, and having a flash of a thought cross my mind, “This is TOO scary.” And then there’s a quick cut and we’re into act two and we’re back into a slow burn section and the movie allows us to recover. I think this is incredibly smart; it really does let Cregger take the movie to “climax” level terror twice before the actual climax and then when we move into the next act, we know we’re safe for a few minutes anyway, that things are slowing down again and we can take a breath.
2022 was undeniably just a phenomenal year for horror at the movies. The Scream franchise roared back with its best entry since the original; Ti West and Mia Goth made horror history with X & Pearl; Scott Derrickson came back with The Black Phone; Sam Raimi brought his particular brand of crazy into the MCU. ****, even Smile was good and Smile really should have been awful. But, even with all that great stuff going on, Barbarian sits right up there toward the top of my list. It’s kind of a perfect movie in my opinion and not just a perfect horror movie. It’s a knock-out and one that I think won’t lose any of its punch over the years. 4 stars.
tl;dr – perfectly, meticulously crafted horror film reaches intense levels of terror thanks to a smart script & fantastic performances; director Cregger has created a hell of a ride. 4 stars.