The horror movie “Barbarian” review
This is a really cool story for a movie that leaves you nervous right off the bat, not knowing if Keith is a good guy or not. And honestly they should’ve made the movie just stay with this plot, as opposed to what they did. It would have made for a much better movie.
Some stay for a night. Some stay for a week. Some never leave.
Barbarian is a horror film released 2022 directed by Zach Cregger. The story follows a lady named Tess who rents an AirBNB, but gets double booked with a guy named Keith. By the time she arrived at the house Keith was already there, and all the hotels in town were completely booked for a convention, meaning Tess has no other choice but to stay.
Now this is a really cool story for a movie that leaves you nervous right off the bat, not knowing if Keith is a good guy or not. And honestly they should’ve made the movie just stay with this plot, as opposed to what they did. It would have made for a much better movie.
That night, Tess wakes up to find her door open, and when she goes to see if it was Keith, we see him having a nightmare. So after waking him up and asking if he had been the one who opened the door, he told her he had been asleep the whole time. Confused, Tess goes back to her room and makes sure she locks the door. The next day during an interview, the interviewer warns Tess to not stay in that neighborhood, but Tess assures her that she’ll be okay.
Again this movie could’ve just been about Tess and Keith, the house being in a sketchy neighborhood with 2 strangers sharing a house. It could’ve made for such a better movie, and a much easier movie to follow. I have mixed feelings about the movie for a lot of reasons, however that’s definitely the biggest reason. Why not make it about Keith and Tess, why even have Keith they’re not going to use him?
Eventually–while stuck in the basement–Tess finds a secret tunnel leading to a scary looking room. The room has a camera pointed at a very dirty bed and a bucket, as well as a bloody handprint on the wall. When Keith gets Tess out of the basement she tells him about what she found. Keith says he has to see it for himself. Once he goes to look, Keith stops responding. Leading into the actual creepy part of the house.
There’s a deeper tunnel running way underground. Tess goes down there searching for Keith, and after finding an open gate with bowls and cages, she does. Keith warns her that there is someone else down there, but before Keith could say much more he was killed by the creature-thing-lady, I honestly don’t know how else to describe her. She’s a tall naked lady with a monstrous face and very pasty skin with dark black hair. It seems like the director couldn’t decide on what movie he actually wanted to make.
A lot more happens in the movie, but all you really need to know is Tess escapes and kills the lady-monster-thing. Now like I said, I have mixed feelings about this movie and the biggest one is that it feels like there were 5 different storylines that they tried to cram into one movie. It made the film feel like there was no reason to watch any of the characters except Tess. I’d give Barbarian a four out of 10.
