Barbarian – REVIEW
Image: Georgina Campbell in Barbarian. Image: film still
A young woman named Tess arrives at her booked accommodation on a cold and rainy night in a rundown suburb in Detroit only to discover that Keith, a man on an out of town work assignment, has also booked the same accommodation.
Keith asks, “Do I look like a monster?” when Tess is hell-bent on leaving. She should have followed her initial instincts to get out as quickly as possible, but is convinced to stay on and ultimately discovers there’s a horrifying presence in the house.
What unnatural events occurred in the confines of the basement all those years before? What dark and sickening secret does the house hide from the outside world?
Barbarian is not your conventional horror flick as the first half is absolutely frightening, working mostly on unsettling suspense whereas the second half changes mood, cheesiness and humour escalating as popular US comedian Justin Long’s character is introduced as the owner of the house in question.
Audiences may be forgiven for believing that a completely different film was accidently edited within the second half of this horror film, however, Justin Long’s likeable character is not spared of the horrors which quickly surface.
The second half of the film also transpires into a bizarre and surreal cinematic oddity, an entanglement of twisted incomprehensible scenes traversing from the present and past with vague explanations filtering through of the morbid activities which occurred in that dreaded house over the years.
But never fear! For audiences who enjoy being unnerved senselessly whilst at the edge of their seats, there is an abundance of the traditional jump scare moments and extremely horrifying and visually graphic ‘eye gouging’ and blood splattering scenes that mature audiences have come to expect in this genre of film.
★★★
In cinemas October 20th
