Stream & Scream: “Barbarian” (2022)
Since last month I took a look at the latest Zach Cregger movie “Resident Evil,” I wanted to check out his first horror movie that gave us a hint of what this talented horror director can do. The movie I'm talking about is the 2022 movie “Barbarian.”
Traveling to Detroit for a job interview, a young woman books a rental home. But when she arrives late at night, she discovers that the house is double booked and a strange man is already staying there.
Against her better judgement, she decides to spend the evening there, but soon discovers that there’s a lot more to fear than just an unexpected house guest.
Zach Cregger’s horror debut, “Barbarian,” delivers a very unpredictable plot and structure that does a very great job shifting the narrative acts and I really enjoyed the movie’s willingness to completely subvert genre expectations rather than following a standard horror formula. Another thing I loved is that once you think you have an idea of where the story is going and who to suspect, “Barbarian” pulls a complete 180 and changes everything.
The movie’s first half is incredibly great for its tension-building moments, especially once the lead character (Tess) starts to investigate the basement and empty tunnels. Those moments are extremely tense and the slow-burn vibe the movie delivers works really well and even the second half changes still makes it entertaining.
While the second half (which also brings some dark humor to the movie) loses some suspense, it really doesn’t lose steam at all. The latter half shifts into a creature-feature, B-movie horror spectacle. The hard tonal shift can be both thrilling and slightly humorous.
One of the most humorous moments is where AJ (a character in the latter half played by Justin Long) discovers the hidden subterranean tunnels beneath his rental property that he’s
trying to sell and instead of fleeing in terror from what is clearly a horrific, blood-stained torture cell, his immediate reaction is simply greed. He frantically pulls out a tape measure to calculate if he can claim the extra square footage to raise the home’s property value. There’s also quite a few scenes that really stand out, including the final moments of the movie, but I won’t really go into them since I would be going into spoiler territory.
The overall response to the 2022 horror-thriller “Barbarian” was highly positive from critics, while audiences and general viewers were generally favorable but more divided over its drastic tonal shifts and unconventional structure. Overall, “Barbarian” is also widely regarded by both critics and viewers as one of the most original and memorable horror entries of the 2020s.
MPA: Rated R for some strong language and gore, disturbing material, language throughout and nudity (running time 102 minutes)
Initial release date: September 9, 2022
Steaming: Hulu/various PVOD services (as of working on this review)
Richard Brake shared a story on Instagram about attending a late night screening of the movie, noting that a particular group of teenagers sitting a few rows behind him were really into the film and were terrified. When it was over, they were leaving the theater, using the flashlights on their phones, when the light accidentally caught Brake's face, the teens recognized him from the movie, then screamed and ran from the room in genuine fear.
The script started out after Zach Cregger read Gavin de Becker's book, "The Gift of Fear," which encourages women to trust their intuition when confronted by obviously dangerous men. He used it as a writing exercise and began crafting a thirty-minute short that consisted entirely of a conversation in which a woman continues to ignore a mounting series of red flags. He liked it well enough that he knew that he had the makings of a longer film and began conceptualizing a broader story for the characters.
Zach Cregger revealed that he had a hard time getting the movie made due to its very unconventional style and plot, with even A24, a studio with a reputation for producing artsy horror films, passing on it. Ultimately, 20th Century Studios decided to take a chance with it. The result was a sleeper hit that made its minuscule $4 million budget back about ten times, along with positive reviews and an even wider audience on streaming services.
While the exterior neighborhood shots were filmed in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit, the rest of the film was shot in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The film's special effects are largely done practically, as Cregger had a soft rule for himself not to use any technology that John Carpenter didn't have whilst making The Thing (1982). The biggest digital effects shot in the film is the grass in the 1980's flashback, after all on-location efforts to grow or fake it failed.
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