Movie Details
| Title: | Barbarian | |
| Director: | Zach Cregger | |
| Year: | 2022 | |
| Genre: | Horror | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 08.09.25 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 08.09.25 | Internet | Hey this was pretty good! A girl arrives at an airBnB and finds Bill Skarsgard is already renting the place. Things are creepy enough but then she finds a secret door in the basement and things progress from there. I thought this was particularly smart in several ways, the first of which is casting Bill Skarsgard. He's just sitting there drinking tea and we're already like "get out of there! it's pennywise! Look at that lazy eye, girl! Get out!!!" There's also a fun tonal shift about halfway through where the movie basically has its cake and eats it too. Justin Long's character is basically a mechanism to convert tension and suspense into macabre fun. The movie probably could've been more intense but wisely pivots to something much more satisfying. It also makes a point in answering the only question that popped into my head as I watched, which is "call the police!" Not only does the creepy score kick in right when the main character make that horror-movie choice to step out of reality and into the scary movie, but we also get two interactions with cops that are not only unhelpful but borderline threatening unto themselves. I guess it's also a statement of where we're at as a country that cops can so easily be stripped of the safety and protection that they should provide, but it solves the cell phone problem nicely when there's literally no one to bother calling. So yeah. The first half is scary, the second half is fun. It plays by the rules it sets up, answers the questions it asks, explains all the creepy stuff enough that it doesn't feel arbitrary or random, does that explaining in an elegant way, and doesn't overstay its welcome. No notes, good movie! |
