By Kolin Kriner
I find it remarkably refreshing when psychological horror movies take a step away from grief and focus on other world topics. I think that’s what I love about the film I am going to be discussing today. There will be a spoiler warning in effect for this review.
“Barbarian,” directed by Zach Cregger, hit theaters in 2022 and became an instant cult classic. The film focuses on social issues and dynamics in a masterfully-crafted way that makes the movie rewatchable, and has become one of my personal favorites of recent years.
The movie is centered around Tess, played by Georgina Campbell, as she arrives at an Airbnb outside of Detroit for a job interview as a research assistant for a documentary. To her shock, however, the Airbnb is already being inhabited by a man named Keith, played by Bill Skarsgård. The movie then enters an uncomfortable array of scenes between the two attempting to interact, as well as what to do about the situation at hand.
What’s great about this whole ordeal, though, is the undertones behind it. Keith was raised to respect women through chivalrous gestures, whereas Tess, through her clear discomfort around him, wants nothing to do with the situation as she is a woman traveling alone.
Keith is meant to represent the male gaze in the function of trying his best to come off as respectful, yet being pushy surrounding his attempts. Tess is supposed to represent the idea of a woman walking alone in the dark, fearful of what could happen to her because of the society that surrounds her.
The dynamic this builds is not only awkward, but realistic of how both of these parties would approach the situation. An example of this is when she first gets there, Keith offers Tess a cup of tea, to which she says “No, thank you.” She then goes to use the restroom and when she comes back, Keith is at the table with the cup still sitting there.
The cup remains there, untouched. Later on, realizing the clear discomfort Tess would have by this gesture, offers to share a bottle of wine with her, which he notes is unopened so she can see him open it.
The two eventually begin to bond through a common interest found in a book. They begin to get to know each other, and ultimately they go to bed — Keith on the couch and Tess in the bedroom. The next morning, Keith is already gone for the day and Tess goes to use the bathroom, but finds there is no toilet paper, which leads her to a hunt, ultimately bringing her to the basement.
In the basement, she discovers a passageway, which takes her to a bleakly lit room with a bed, a camera facing the bed and a bucket, as well as what appears to be blood on the wall. During this, the door upstairs closes on itself and locks her in, with her phone upstairs, leading to her needing to wait for Keith’s return.
When Keith comes back, she tells him what she saw, but he doesn’t think it’s that serious, claiming that there’s nothing scary about a room with a bed and a bucket. Keith goes to investigate and takes a while so Tess goes in to find him. She finds that the passageway goes deeper than expected and discovers Keith who looks scared, and then out of nowhere a naked woman appears and bashes Keith’s head into the wall — repeatedly.
The movie suddenly does a three-week time jump to California, following a new character played by Justin Long named AJ, an actor. AJ is cruising down the coastline when he gets a call from his agents about him getting dropped from a TV show because an actress alleged he had sexually assaulted her. He travels to Detroit to sell one of his properties in order to stay afloat. The property that he is going to, however, ends up being the Airbnb from the beginning. Once there, he gets a phone call from an old friend to go drinking.
While out, he reveals to this friend that he didn’t assault the actress and that she was into it, just that it took her “a little convincing.” When he returns home from drinking, he calls said actress and apologizes profusely before going to bed.
The next morning, again on the search for toilet paper, AJ finds the passageway and begins to measure it to add square footage to the property. Of course, while doing this, he gets attacked by the naked lady and is thrown into a cage, where the viewer is reunited with Tess.
The film does another time jump, this time back in time to the 1980s. In the modern day, the town appears disheveled and abandoned, but the time jump brings us to a more vibrant era. The viewer follows a man named Frank as he goes shopping for several items that he claims are being used for a “home birth.”
The film once again jumps back to the present, where the naked lady, called “The Mother,” tries to feed AJ from an old baby bottle, which he refuses. This makes the Mother mad and she jumps down and brings him to her nursing room. Tess sees this as an opportunity to escape. However, due to how her character is driven,she returns to help AJ.
At the same time, AJ goes deeper into the passageway as he was able to briefly escape the Mother. He finds himself in an old room where a very aged Frank is lying. In the room, AJ finds several tapes of Frank sexually assaulting women, and AJ calls him a monster. Frank ends up shooting himself in the head.
I won’t continue with spoilers for the film as the ending is worth the watch. However, I would like to again discuss the social undertones of all that has led up to this point.
The movie’s cut to AJ again shows the world in the male gaze, of him believing what he did wasn’t sexual assault despite his confessions saying otherwise. This is in contrast to him calling Frank a monster — despite what Frank did being a lot more torturous and disgusting — at the end of the day, they are both two peas in the same pod. AJ recognizes the fault in others despite what he did being the exact same thing.
The film also tackles whether the Mother is a villain, or simply a victim of circumstances. Later in the film you learn that she is the result of several generations of inbreeding at the hands of Frank, and has lived in the passageways of this Airbnb her entire life. Being a mother is all she has ever known other than Frank. Her only form of interaction has been with a TV playing parenting videos on repeat. All the Mother wants to be is just that — a mother. As much as you can view her as a villain, it’s important to remember that she is the product of the man that created her. I honestly sympathize with her.
There is so much more to talk about with this film, and that’s what is so amazing about it. I could go on for ages discussing the film and its themes, and because of that, this is the first movie I am giving five out of five stars.
