BARBARIAN (2022)
BARBARIAN
(2022)
Dir: Zach Cregger
103 min.
Since my analysis of this crapfest involves the plotholes and idiocies of a supposedly intelligent character, there is little I can say here which doesn’t involve spoilers. Although right now (2210.31-Halloween) it is RottenTomatoes.com Certified FRESH with a rating of 92 on the Tomatometer (professional critics) and 70% Audience Score.
As my colleagues and family are apt to hear me say, “I disagree”. Holy shite do I disagree.
SPOILERS AHEAD
First off, let’s look at our character, Tess, played well by the exceedingly fucking lovely fine as fuck POA Georgina Campbell. She is traveling to Detroit for an interview, presumably to move there (her first mistake, and I speak from experience). We are given a glimpse into the interview, and she seems like a reasonable and smart person. This is the character created by the script, so since that is what the movie is telling us, let’s go with that. Of course in stressful situations, not everyone acts responsibly or with the highest levels of expected intelligence. This movie plays on that expectation, over and over.
So. Tess pull up to the rental home in Detroit, via AirBnB. She looks around, and cannot tell what the area around her looks like, as the few working streetlights in Detroit do not illuminate the area well enough for her to see the facades of the other houses, with only a solitary porch light on the rental home giving light. If she were really curious, why wouldn’t she just have used GoogleMaps Street View before booking ANYWHERE in Detroit? That she’s doing it in an area she knows zed about makes me suspicious, as it’s contradictory to her nature in the rest of the movie.
She is obviously very intent on protecting herself, as she discovers there is already a person in the house, booked with another rental service. Bill Skarsgard, without the Pennywise makeup, seems like a nice-enough guy without intent of harm, so after a long discussion and plenty of safety measures, she decides to stay, after calling the rental company and not receiving a call back.
Of course, there wouldn’t be a movie if things didn’t start to sour. After getting back from the interview the next day, the house is empty and she’s out of TP in the only bathroom (a common feature in some old Detroit homes). She goes to the basement and discovers a hidden door, goes inside and finds a room where it is obvious people were tortured. Based on what we know, she follows her instincts and runs up the stairs to grab her phone. The door closes, and she’s locked in the basement.
There are conditions in rental agreements which would cover her were she to kick the cheap door to escape what she clearly feels is perilous. Yet at this point, she pushes the door and it does open, about 2cm, then she pulls it closed and when she pushes again against the door, it doesn’t open at all. That is NOT the way doors work.
There are, of course, interesting premises, yet plot points thrown in which are contradictory. To point out one, apparently a lot of people who rent there are never to be seen again, but the rental agency continues to book that location (why abandoned cars aren’t piling up outside is not even a consideration), and when she does have interaction with a cop, he doesn’t believe a word she says, however if people are disappearing from that address, why — please tell me — hasn’t this fact come to the notice of the Detroit PD?
The address of 476 Barbary does not exist. This isn’t really a problem, but every single residential street in Detroit does have a sidewalk, yet the street in the D in this stinker doesn’t. One of the few shots actually shot in the Motor City is set in Downtown’s Capitol Park, just 1 building around the corner of the building I used to live in and manage.
Here’s what Detroit’s free weekly paper says:
“Barbarian may not make a lick of sense, but it is brutal AF and entertaining as hell.”[1]
I both agree and cannot get over the correctly stated fact that it does not make a lick of sense.
Instead of wasting your time here, see instead his far superior and almost perfect 2025 flick WEAPONS.
