Reviews Film / Barbarian

A wild ride that might run way too far from the premise for many.

Barbarian starts as a thriller about a woman unsure she can trust a man who's turned out to already be occupying an Airbnb she rented. When she discovers a terrifying lair under the house, things get all the worse. That interpersonal tension is not the continuous plot thread, but it's probably the strongest part of the movie.

The film evolves in tone and premise and can at times feel like an anthology due to hard cuts to separate story threads and cinematic tones that linger for a while before winding back into the main story of the creepy house. I didn't hate the film for where it went, and was never bored or uninvested, and the film did hold true to my hopes that it wouldn't become a supernatural story...even if it does have a "monster". It's often a betrayal for the end of a horror story to be so conceptually different from the start, and I don't blame anyone for feeling that happened here.

The main theme is gender disparity in social interactions and safety. Act 1 is a woman unsure if she can trust a man with a lot of red flags. Act 2 follows a man, AJ (beyond red flags) being brought into the horror, and act 3 sees the protagonist, Tess, confronting her self-destructive relationships with men as AJ faces his own sins in the form of another man's horrific crimes and legacy. Tess makes a lot of awful choices as a horror protagonist and as a rational person, but it's entirely the point that she gets drawn into helping guys who aren't worth it. Men are shown to be blind to the unease they cause or the crimes they commit, but they are not excused for their lack of awareness. We also explore the very greatest extremes of violence against women as the primary evil in this film...so it's lauadable that the film never once gets graphic in its depictions. Violence against women is given just enough context to rattle the viewer without ever being exploitative. The film knows hard cuts and offscreen allusions are more than enough to convey the pain. It's always good when a story works to avoid the sins it stands against. The antagonist may be a product of some awkward depictions, but I think the film ultimately lands right morally.

The film mixes genuine dread and piercing startles with elements of comedy later on, and it all lands okay if you're along for the ride. I can't say I wouldn't love a more grounded film of the first act extended tonally and narratively to be the film's primary conflict and intrigue (keep the creepy basement too), but the rest is worthy and purposeful in all its wildness.