--- title: "Barbarian (2022)" subtitle: "Directed by Zach Cregger" author: Seth publish_date: 2025-03-22 08:00 date: 2025-03-22 08:00 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: film-1600x800.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: culture tag: [ movie, cinema, horror, review ] --- I recently saw the movie **Barbarian** (2022), and these are my notes about it. This isn't a review, it's honestly just so I remember what the movie was about 3 months from now. This post does contain spoilers. Cutting to the chase: It's an OK horror movie that starts stronger than any horror movie made in the past 5 years and then levels out and ends up being, yeah, OK. First of all, ignore the title and the graphic design. It has nothing to do with 1980s gaming or fantasy, despite the font choice and striking red background of the movie poster, and the word "barbarian". For the first half of the movie, I kept expecting Tess (the main character) to stumble into a parallel fantasy world and to either become or be menaced by a D&D barbarian. Didn't happen, completely not about that. ## Plot Tess arrives in a ravaged suburb of Detroit to stay at an Airbnb. The problem is, there's somebody already in the house. It seems the place has somehow been double-booked, having listings on two separate websites. Keith, the guy already in the house, seems nice enough. He seems to be willing to work with Tess to come up with a solution to their mutual problem. Tess is hesitant, to say the least, but goes inside for lack of any safer option. That's the spoiler-free setup. You can imagine how things progress from that point. Except you can't, because nothing progresses the way you think it's going to. ## Twists and turns First of all, there is an obvious solution to Tess's problem. She gets back into her car and drives out of Detroit until she can find a Motel 6 along the highway. I'm originally from the US, I don't care how many conventions are in town, there's always a motel a few dozen miles away. It would mean a longer drive for her in the morning when she proceeds to her job interview, but it's worth it. But we've all been in sunk-cost situations, many of us have been desperate for a job, and so on. So Tess makes a poor life choice, but arguably, in a way, has no better option. That's a lot of the movie, actually. Tess makes lots of poor choices because she arguably, in a way, has no better option. It says a lot about her character, and Georgina Campbell is amazing in the role. Like many movies, the true "danger" of its story is the illusion that there is a main character. You might be tempted to feel that because Tess fights so dilligently to do the "right" thing, that even her poor choices are vindicated. She had to do what she had to do, because she did the right thing...right? Sure, that tracks with how movies work and how many of us think life works. But by the end of the movie, lives have been lost and survivors have been traumatised, and the world doesn't care. Tess's actions didn't really alter the state of anything, not to the degree that they'd have been significantly different had she just gotten back into her car and drove away. Anyway, there's lots of thought-provoking commentary about feminism, economy, relationships, responsibility, and probably more. It's a really good first half of a movie. ## The half-way curse This movie suffers from the [half-way horror curse](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/culture_half-way-horror-curse). When the exact nature of the threat becomes clear, the movie starts to fall apart. The actual threat is human evil, which frankly _is_ the most disturbing horror villain. It's not demon possession or eldritch horror, it's just humans being human, and that's chilling. But it can also be a little silly. In a kind of inversion of Hitchcock's **Psycho**, this movie makes Mother the clear and present danger, and I guess her almost supernatural abilities are _because in-breeding_. For no good reason, the movie contains a brief flashback to the early 80s, just in case you couldn't fill in the details about the house's history as the secret bunker of a serial killer. From that flashback comes the graphic design of the movie poster, I guess. Weirder still, the serial killer is still alive, I think? And then he shoots himself using a gun he keeps right next to his bed, but only when a character in the movie discovers him. Why did he wait? Why was he still alive? Why was he even in the movie? ## An OK movie If you're a horror fan, then you absolutely need to see the first half of this movie. The movie is well done, though. Even though I didn't personally enjoy the second half of the story, the movie remained enjoyable throughout. The performances are super strong, there are lots of twists that you don't expect, and lots of bad decisions to groan at. Definitely an OK horror movie (which starts out as an AMAZING horror movie).

Lead photo by Anika De Klerk on Unsplash