BARBARIAN: AirBnB My Baby

I’m going to start this piece honestly. Barbarian absolutely shouldn’t work. But thank god, it does. Barbarian RULES. It’s funny, fucked up, and full of social commentary without bashing it over the head with it (just, uh, maybe bashing your head into the concrete wall of an underground cave with it). The crazy thing is, if you were to show me this on paper, I’d probably groan out loud. Words on a page can, in no way, do this movie (and Justin) the justice it deserves. Yes, I recognize the irony of me writing about a move I’ve repeatedly said can’t be encapsulated on paper, but I digress. 

Barbarian turns the old cliche of looking better on paper on its head. However, keeping with the grand tradition of my more recent reviews, I’m not giving you anything. Don’t read anything about this movie because you probably won’t see it after reading the plot online. But believe me, it’s so, so much better. 

Directed by Zach Cregger, who you’ll recognize from Whitest Kids U Know (just know several of these sketches aren’t super PC and/or didn’t age well when you go searching on YouTube), Barbarian is the perfect mix of social commentary, humor, and horror. It also has the WKUK stank on it, and I can’t figure out if it’s the cadence or the humor, but you’ll see what I mean. I also want to give one minor critique up top. Justin Long’s character does use the f word to really stress how unlikable his character should be, but as we all know, you can make an unlikable character unlikable without resorting to derogatory language. 

Barbarian also fits nicely into the likes of X and Scream (2022) where it is what you make it. If you want to turn your brain off and watch a good ol’ fashioned gory story, you’ve come to the right place. If you want to dissect the characters and the representation of the movie’s title, you’ve also come to the right place. I absolutely adore this new subgenre in horror that combines highbrow and lowbrow horror into one package. 

Anywho, this one’s a must see, and I’m really glad Zach Cregger has tunneled his way into the horror community.