It’s the Airbnb experience created from the stuff nightmares are made of for a young woman who discovers the short-term rental home she’s about to stay in is double-booked in the horror film Barbarian.
Tess (Georgina Campbell, Suspicion), a documentary researcher, arrives late at night at the Airbnb she rented while in Detroit on a job interview. Stuck out in the pouring rain, she discovers that the key to the house is not in the lockbox. And, much to her surprise, someone is already in the house.
Keith (Bill Skarsgard, the IT films) comes to the door half asleep and informs Tess that he booked the house and has the paperwork to prove it. He invites her in out of the rain, and she reluctantly enters to compare their reservation confirmations.
Tess and Keith quickly realize that the company they went through must have accidentally double-booked the house. Keith helpfully suggests that she stay since it’s raining and since the rental is in a run-down part of town. It might not be safe for her to go out on her own searching for a hotel.
At first, Tess is understandably hesitant, but she finally agrees to stay. Determined to be a gentleman, Keith insists she take the bedroom and he’ll crash on the couch. As Keith and Tess enjoy some wine, chat, and get to know each other a little, Tess starts to relax and enjoy the company of her new housemate.
Later that night Tess wakes to find her bedroom door open and Keith asleep on the couch in the middle of a bad dream. Creeped out and concerned, she wakes him and asks if he opened her door. He claims he didn’t and is annoyed she woke him.
The next day after a successful job interview Tess returns to the rental and finds a note from Keith saying he left to run some errands, promising he’ll see her later that night. It’s while Tess is alone in the house that she accidentally locks herself in the basement while exploring and discovers a maze of hidden rooms, corridors, and stairs. This leads to her discovering the true horrors of the house.
Written and directed by Zach Cregger, Barbarian is a dark, disturbing, and twisted film with strong performances from its cast. Cregger doesn’t introduce anything new to the genre but does use some classic horror movie-making techniques to manipulate and scare the audience, including flashlights barely lighting up dark tunnels and doorways, weird sounds coming out of the darkness, and, of course, characters doing exactly what they shouldn’t do in a horror movie.
Georgina Campbell is wonderful as Tess, a smart and headstrong young woman who finds herself in a horrific nightmare but struggles to find a way to survive. Campbell subtly displays Tess’s wariness of Keith when she first meets him and her eventual fondness for him after their late-night chat. Campbell also displays genuine fear as her character goes through what can only be described as a living nightmare.
Justin Long steals every scene he’s in as AJ, a self-absorbed actor whose legal troubles cause him to end up at the same rental house that Tess and Keith are at in a surprising yet effective subplot.
The direction, set design, and cinematography are all extremely well-done and generate a real sense of dread and fear.
Creepy and unsettling, Barbarian is a highly effective horror film that’s sure to make moviegoers anxious and squirm in their seats.
GRADE: B-
MPAA Rating: R (Nudity|Language Throughout|Disturbing Material|Some Strong Violence and Gore)
Release Date: September 9, 2022
Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Studios
