Barbarian

2022 - 10 - 28

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Image courtesy of "SYFY WIRE"

'Barbarian' director working on new horror project that is somehow ... (SYFY WIRE)

Zach Cregger's Barbarian opened two very big doors. One leads down to a network of underground tunnels full of untold horrors (if you know, you know).

"If you go to a theater, you will scream, you will laugh, you will have a blast. "I was hoping it was going to get released on a streaming platform and then hopefully people would find it over the next couple of years." I’m not saying that you won’t have a good time watching it at home, but you want to go on a roller coaster at a theme park, not on virtual reality goggles. "I went over to his house and he gave me a ton of advice on inevitable issues that I could expect to encounter on my first feature," he recalled. "I think it's the truth that you probably haven't seen a movie like this," the writer-director said of the movie's profound cultural impact. That's exactly what the burgeoning filmmaker intends to do as he chips away at two new projects — one of which is "a horror movie" that is "way weirder than Barbarian," the writer-director revealed during an interview with Empire for the magazine's [final issue of 2022](https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/empire-december-2022?utm_source=dynamic&utm_medium=bws&utm_campaign=empire_singles&utm_content=empiredecember2022) (now on sale).

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Image courtesy of "The Independent"

Barbarian review: The endless twists in this Airbnb horror film are a ... (The Independent)

Dir: Zach Cregger. Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long. 18, 107 minutes. In life, every chance is really a risk.

What the film chooses to do with him, versus what we might assume it will do with him, is both surprising and smart. Debuting writer-director Zach Cregger, a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know, has also mastered this film’s sense of space: the camera hovers at the top of staircases; it slides down corridors as if drawn to some unspoken doom; it peers around corners, steadying itself for a scare. [Terms of use,](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/user-policies-a6184151.html) [Cookie policy](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/cookie-policy-a6184186.html) and [Privacy notice.](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/privacy-policy-a6184181.html) Cops here don’t act like cops in the movies do. The property, somewhat suspiciously, is the only intact home in one of the city’s many abandoned stretches, a mark of its industrial decline. “There’s a lot of bad dudes out there,” he tells her, so sincerely. Barbarian’s many twists are a central part of its funhouse charm. And for women, every risk is a potential danger. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) arrives in Detroit for a job interview, only to find a man – Bill Skarsgård’s Keith – already staying in the Airbnb she’s rented for the week. Isn’t it an odd coincidence that he’s seen the one low-budget documentary made by the woman Tess is interviewing for? Why is Keith so insistent that he opens the house’s bottle of welcome wine in front of her, even though she’s already declined a glass? In life, every chance is really a risk.

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Image courtesy of "City A.M."

Barbarian film review: Overstretched but inventive (City A.M.)

A surprise hit internationally, Barbarian has come out of nowhere to become a modern cult favourite. Set in Detroit, Georgina Campbell (Broadchurch) plays Tess, ...

As with many of the best horror films, the premise prods at real life societal problems – in this case, the everyday safety concerns facing women. A surprise hit internationally, Barbarian has come out of nowhere to become a modern cult favourite. Upon arrival, she finds Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already there, a double booking from another app.

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Image courtesy of "Screen Rant"

Why Keith Had To Die In Barbarian (& What Happened To His Body?!) (Screen Rant)

Why is Keith's death so crucial to Barbarian's plot and social commentary, and where does The Mother keep him and all of the other dead bodies?

[the end of Barbarian](https://screenrant.com/barbarian-movie-ending-explained/) and immediately kills Keith after a scuffle that resulted in him getting bitten while fleeing the tunnels. Perhaps [a sequel or prequel to Barbarian](https://screenrant.com/barbarian-sequel-better-than-prequel/) can touch upon the actual method of disposal, but it would make sense that The Mother has a way of handling corpses. This aversion to men, and affection for women, is further exhibited by her fear of nearing Frank's side of the tunnel and her sacrificial dive from the water tower to save Tess after AJ pushes her off. [actor cast as the Keith character in Barbarian](https://screenrant.com/barbarian-movie-cast-character-guide/) is Bill Skarsgård, who famously played Pennywise in It and It: Chapter Two. [Barbarian](https://screenrant.com/tag/barbarian/)'s most shocking moment is the violently abrupt death of the character Keith, but his chilling end is a critical puzzle piece to making the movie work as a whole. Those expectations are later yanked from beneath the audience in a graphic and unexpected sequence in which The Mother (Matthew Davis), Barbarian's monstrous killer, murders Keith in front of Tess (Georgina Campbell).

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Image courtesy of "Den of Geek"

Great Horror Comedy Movies to Watch After Barbarian (Den of Geek)

Here is a collection of cult horror movie classics for those put in the mood for the lighter side of horror after Barbarian...

Many have spilled ink over the ways in which Scream changed the game, and the film inspired a trail of imitators that still lingers to this day. Like Barbarian, Malignant has a truly batshit twist that also echoes Basket Case and must be seen to be fully appreciated. Grace unluckily draws the card that corresponds to the most brutal game, a version of hide-and-seek where the bride must stay hidden until dawn or be sacrificed to Satan. Sending up hixploitation films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Wrong Turn, the titular characters are not fearsome rednecks but just a pair of sweet-natured country boys that are unfairly stereotyped by a gang of judgemental, yuppie teens. Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk expertly anchor this horror-comedy, imbuing it with the right amount of heart so the film’s message of not judging a book by its cover lands without being overly treacly. Part horror-comedy, part class inequality screed, Ready or Not doesn’t get too weighed down in its political commentary, instead using it as jumping off point to stage the most wickedly dangerous (and fun) game of hide-and-seek ever staged onscreen. The hunt and Grace’s fight against it are deliciously bloody, with each kill upping the ante for the next until the whole thing reaches a red-spattered climax. Landis’ remake of The Wolf Man follows an American fish-out-water, played by David Naughton, who loses his traveling companion and is turned into a werewolf after not heeding the warnings of the superstitious locals. With Spooky Season heading to a close, and Halloween right around the corner, you might be looking for more films that scratch this camp horror itch. Since then, the two brothers communicate telepathically and aim to take revenge on anyone that had a hand in separating them. Smart and winkingly funny before that sort of thing became commonplace, the movie features memorable turns from Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as over-it bloodbath engineers. Combining wicked twists, an unorthodox structure, and a dash of good humor (Cregger’s background with the sketch comedy troupe, The Whitest Kids U’Know, certainly helped in that avenue), Barbarian became a word-of-mouth hit that’s now finding an even wider audience thanks to streaming on HBO Max.

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