I’m not sure of the wisdom of watching a horror like Zach Cregger’s Barbarian alone in a subterranean cinema on a Wednesday afternoon. My adrenaline was high for most of it as it twisted and turned through a dark labyrinth.

Tess (Georgina Campbell) turns up at an Airbnb in a mostly derelict Detroit neighbourhood and finds it double booked with nice guy, Keith (Bill Skarsgård). He convinces her to stay the night and all seems well until she ventures into the basement when he’s not home and finds a secret door and some troubling rooms and tunnels.

You don’t want to know the plot, that would ruin the ride, but it kept me guessing until the final act. Cregger artfully shifts tone at certain points, most noticeably when he cuts from a horror climax to Hollywood bad boy, AJ (Justin Long), driving his convertible in the sunshine. It feels like a different movie until we understand AJ’s connection to the house on Barbary Street and we realise the inevitability of his downward trajectory. The sudden shift helps ease tension before slowly, cranking it up to 11.

Casting Skarsgård was clever as he’s such a nice guy, but his role as Pennywise in It (2017) means he is totally believable as a psychopath. Sometimes in horror movies the drama is lost when the monster is revealed, but this one keeps on giving. Campbell is everything you want in a plucky heroine and transcends her rather thankless role as DC Katie Harford in Broadchurch.

The monster relies a little too much on some well worn tropes, but as the barbarian of Barbary St (nice one Cregger) they hit all the marks.

Image via Letterboxd.com

---

Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.