Zach Cregger’s film, and directorial debut, Barbarians, is a horror movie depicting just what can happen in an AirBnB stay gone wrong. The film is fun, bloodthirsty, and holds fun twists on the premise that leave you wanting for more information. The amazing cinematography and complete commitment from all the actors present make it very fun, and can help you to forget just how much focus this movie loses as it spins its tale.
This is absolutely not to say that this movie does not show horror fans a good time, or that it is a failure in any regard. The cinematography has some very amazing and shining examples of brilliance, and the performances given by Georgina Campbell (Black Mirror, Suspicion) and Bill Skarsgård (It, The Devil All the Time) are absolutely wonderful, and make the first act of the film feel groundbreaking and exciting.
We then hard-shift the story for the first time, showing Justin Long’s (Jeepers Creepers, Galaxy Quest) current situation and introduction into the film’s situation. This device, while utilized well in this case, will become jarring and tiresome by film’s end, and feel more like a camera continually cheating over your shoulder than pieces of a narrative.
The film’s message seems to begin here, being “Men Are the Real Monsters”, a theme supported by the next interjection, a story of the original owner of the home that, while chilling, leaves the viewers wanting. Wanting to see a different movie, one where this is the main conflict and concept. Wanting to remain focused on one storyline for more than thirty minutes at any given time. The constant switching of story focus could have been done in such a way that the entire film feels frantic, but as it stands, the end product just feels as if it is confused, or perhaps ran out of ideas to fill the very scant 97 minute run-time.
The theme, underhanded at first, truly takes shape in the back third of the film, as we find out more about Long’s character situation, and gain some shoddily-crafted exposition on the events that took place over time in the AirBnB house. In the end, the monstrous men receive their comeuppance, for contrived situations that caused them to act more monstrous. At the beginning of the movie, I thought it would be a well-crafted theme, full of nuance and well-written character actions to support said theme. I began to expect a very fun and refreshing horror take on classic literature story beats. However, by the film’s final conceit, the theme is quite literally being shoved into the viewer’s eyes.
In the end, we are left with a film that has a lot of promise; an interesting elevator pitch concept (Jane Eyre, but horror-movie style!), a twisty-and-turny style plot that viewers oft love, A-tier acting and production value. But there is a lot left to be desired here, and that is why I leave a score of:
5.75/10; Brontë deserves Bëtter, wouldn’t you say?
That sounds exhausting.