The phrase “a game of two halves” does not begin to cover the sudden swerve in Zach Cregger’s entertaining, properly scary new horror.
The first hour is a flawless piece of film-making, characterised by expertly timed jump scares, a disconcerting series of shots in which the heroine walks through various wrong doors and sneaky plotting.
The second half, though wild, gross and persuasively escalating, eschews the nuance of the opening half in favour of a byre door broad send-up of toxic masculinity and an iffy monster.
To see it is to think to oneself, “That’s really not how genetics works.”
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No matter. There is plenty to love.
Georgina Campbell is Tess, a commendably cautious protagonist who finds herself double-booked in an Airbnb in one of Detroit’s less salubrious suburbs. Her unexpected housemate is Keith (Bill Skarsgård), a community art activist and Nice Guy who ensures that Tess sees him open the bottle of wine before he offers her a glass. When he notes that she has a thing about clean sheets, he gets to work on the laundry. And then the door to Tess’ room mysteriously opens in the night. And then she observes Keith having a strange and violent nightmare. And then there’s a misadventure in the spooky basement.
Taking a leaf from Parasite, Barbarian both literally and figuratively plays with the idea that however unpleasant things seem there’s always a scarier, lower level.
Enter Justin Long’s AJ, a sitcom star who is devastated to learn that a recent sexual assault may end his career. Between indignation and shouting the word “bitches”, he decamps to Detroit to take stock of his assets, a portfolio that includes a certain abandoned property.
A backstory, unassumingly parachuted in for good measure, in which Richard Brake (Mandy) stalks a possible female victim during the Reagan years, offers a masterclass in suggestive violence without any attendant exploitation. The sequence doubles as the pleasing riposte to the frenzied slasher action of the most recent Halloween films.
Barbarian has deservedly become a seasonal US hit and a terrific argument against rental properties. An auspicious and sure-footed feature from Cregger, the former Twitch streamer and Friends with Benefits TV star.
