Barbarian Review: New Hotstar movie warns you to double-check your Airbnb

Even though Barbarian released in American theatres last month, it finally got an international streaming release quite recently. Hailed as one of the best horror films in recent times, Barbarian is bound to arouse the curiousity of horror fanatics.

However, viewers need to know that Barbarian is rightfully scary regardless of whether you enjoy it or not. For people with low tolerance for gore and claustrophobic spaces, Barbarian might make for an unsettling (if not amusing) experience. For the others, it would be quite a pleasing thriller with high chances of arousing unpredictable emotions from audiences towards its third act.

The premise seems to be straightforward initially with Tess (played by British actress Georgina Campbell), a journalist who visits Detroit for an interview and rents an Airbnb for her journey. But little does she know that her rental house lays in the middle of a spooky, lifeless neighbourhood. Her problems increase further when she discovers another tenant (played by Bill Skarsgard of Pennywise fame) has rented the same house. 

So, even when the supernatural or psychological elements haven’t kicked in, you are anyway bound to be unsettled as an awkward conversation plays out between the two. With a heavy downpour outside and the town’s hotels fully booked, the man still offers that the woman can stay and they can sleep in separate rooms. He’s trying his best to not be the creep that true-crime documentaries warn us about. She’s trying her best to trust a man in a world where trustworthy men are an endangered species.

Going further down the premise would be chartering spoiler territory but it is this sense of male privilege and entitlement that becomes a major motif in the film. So, even though unexpected terrors raise their grotesque, deranged, blood-stained heads in Barbarian, the real horror ultimately lies in the atmosphere of fear that men have birthed over centuries.

Alex Garland tried to offer a similar commentary early this year with his experimental horror flick very straightforwardly titled Men (Indian audiences can stream it on Amazon Prime Video). Still, Men’s focus on some arthouse-influenced surrealism might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Barbarian, on the other hand, has enough scares to offer even those horror watchers who are accustomed to mainstream jump scares. Instead of a typical Conjuring-style mansion, the Airbnb doubles as a haunted house. When the rental’s visitors discover an underground basement, the claustrophobic, dim-lit terror plays out in a manner reminiscent of found footage classics like Blair Witch Project.

And still, Barbarian has enough originality to stand out amidst oversaturated horrors (just take the latest Halloween film as a case in point). Just like how it might be a Herculean task for a woman to judge a man as a “creep” or a “nice guy”, writer-director Zach Cregger’s screenplay offers enough grey areas to boggle viewers. With a shocking ending, a question is bound to pop up in the head, “Who is the real villain here?”. 

The title Barbarian is also purposely ominous in this case. You catch a glimpse of several characters that seem antagonistic but who is the real barbarian? 

And while such moralistic discussions can arise while watching Barbarian, the 1hr-43m-long film is otherwise pretty fast-paced with no dearth of goosebumps-inducing camera tricks, realistically detailed gore, and tragically dark backstories. Filmmaker Zach Cregger is quite a revelation in this case as he has just been a comedic writer before with even some acting credits in guilty pleasures like Friends With Benefits. 

If he succeeds at building a similar reign of terror as Barbarian, then he might just go through a fascinating career switch like Jordan Peele (who was once just known for his sketch comedies but is now a horror maestro after Get Out). 

As for Cregger’s cast, Campbell shines as the heroine balancing both fear and confidence as and when required. Her character is no scream queen or damsel in distress. She can fight her way through the threats housed within the Airbnb but can also act rationally in fatal moments. For instance, when she starts exploring the rental and comes across one of the shoddy-looking areas, she stops at her tracks and mutters to herself “Nope” (Jordan Peele fans might see it as a cheeky reference to his latest film). 

Black Mirror fans would remember Campbell from the “Hang the DJ” episode but her previous filmography is not that mainstream. After Barbarian, this might change for good.

Joining Campbell is Bill Skarsgard who at this point is the perfect candidate to become the poster boy of modern horror with his piercing green eyes and high cheekbones. The Swedish-origin actor broke out with his performance as the evil clown in It but has had his fair share of terrifying roles in Castle Rock and The Devil All The Time (both of which can be streamed on Netflix). However, here, he tries to defy typecast by trying to play a “normal guy” (or is he?). 

Justin Long (whom you might have seen before here and there or just heard him as the annoying rodent Alvin in Alvin and the Chipmunks) also shares screenspace as a disgraced actor trying to battle sexual harassment allegations in the post-MeToo era. Withholding all spoilers, Long totally owns the role with his character bringing some dark satire on the table. Once typecast for boyish roles, Long finally gets to play a slightly older man and maybe signals an artistic acting Renaissance for himself.

All in all, Barbarian could have been just a typical “human vs some terrifying creature” story and would have still worked for its atmospheric tension. But with its narrative also incorporating some timely and relevant things, it offers a new hope for modern Hollywood horror in the same vein as the A24 horrors (Hereditary, The Witch, and the like) or Jordan Peele’s work (Get Out, Us, Nope). There is and will always be a market for jump scare-heavy favourites too, such as James Wan’s Conjuring and Insidious franchises. But Barbarian is one of the few ones that can balance both tones and hence attract diverse demographics within horror. 

And all its cinematic merit aside, perhaps the biggest takeaway is also: DOUBLE CHECK YOUR RENTAL ROOMS BEFORE BOOKING!

We’re going with 4 out of 5 stars for Barbarian.