barbarian
With the horror film Barbarian, you get three movies for the price of one. Not all of them work equally well, and a last-ditch attempt to bring it all together is almost too ambitious, but you can’t help but admire debutant director Zach Cregger’s audacity. Unlike India, where filmmakers are positively terrified of tackling the genre in its purest form — our scary movies are usually watered down with romance or comedy — Barbarian somehow combines three vastly different styles of horror filmmaking into a wildly original romp that lives and dies by its own rules.
Like so many desi horror directors, Cregger also switches between tones, but the delineations in his narrative are deliberately defined. A second-act tonal shift is so provocatively jarring that it will take a moment for you to recover. Cregger anticipated this, perhaps; he leaves around 10 seconds of inaction immediately after smash-cutting to an entirely different setting, presumably to give you time to pick your jaw up from the floor. Like how Marvel movies these days go silent after big reveals, in anticipation of the din in the theatres. I’d imagine that watching Barbarian with a full crowd at midnight wouldn’t be too different from the experience of watching Avengers: Endgame with an opening day audience. Certainly, it’ll play differently than it does at home, on Disney+ Hotstar.
MOVIE INFO
Traveling to Detroit for a job interview, a young woman books a rental home. But when she arrives late at night, she discovers that the house is double booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to spend the evening, but soon discovers that there's a lot more to fear than just an unexpected house guest.
Rating: R (Language Throughout|Disturbing Material|Nudity|Some Strong Violence and Gore)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller
Original Language: English
Director: Zach Cregger
Producer: Arnon Milchan, Roy Lee, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz
Writer: Zach Cregger
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 9, 2022 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 25, 2022
Box Office (Gross USA): $40.8M
Runtime: 1h 42m
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Production Co: Almost Never Films Inc., Regency Enterprises, BoulderLight Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment, Hammerstone Studios
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)
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