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Barbarian is a 2022 American horror film written and directed by Zach Cregger and starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long. Arnon Milchan, Roy Lee, Raphael Margules, and J.D. Lifshitz produced the film, which follows a young woman who finds out that the house she rented is accidentally double-booked with a man, and finds a dark secret within the home.

Barbarian
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Zach Cregger
Written by	Zach Cregger
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Roy Lee Raphael Margules J.D. Lifshitz
Starring	Georgina Campbell Bill Skarsgård Justin Long Richard Brake
Cinematography	Zach Kuperstein
Edited by	Joe Murphy
Music by	Anna Drubich
Production companies	Regency Enterprises[1] Almost Never Films[1] Hammerstone Studios[1] BoulderLight Pictures[1] Vertigo Entertainment[1]
Distributed by	20th Century Studios[1]
Release dates	July 22, 2022 (2022-07-22) (SDCC) September 9, 2022 (2022-09-09) (United States)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4 million[2]
Box office	$38.6 million[3][4]

Barbarian premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 9, 2022, by 20th Century Studios. It received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, making over $38 million worldwide, against a $4 million budget.

Plot

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) books a remote home in a rundown neighborhood while staying in Detroit for a job interview. She is surprised to find the house is already occupied by a young man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård), who rented the property through a different app. With a storm raging outside and no hotel vacancies, Tess finds herself with no option but to spend the night in the house. Initially, Tess is unnerved by Keith's awkward and strange behavior, but she eventually warms up to him. That night, she notices her bedroom door has been opened and hears someone moving around the house. She then sees Keith shaking and making strange sounds in his sleep, so she goes to wake him. After another awkward encounter, Tess returns to her room and falls asleep.

The next morning, Tess awakens to find that Keith has left the house for the day. She goes to her job interview and is warned that the neighborhood where she is staying is unsafe. Upon returning, she is chased inside by a homeless man, Andre (Jaymes Butler), who demands that she leave the house. Needing to use the bathroom, Tess searches the residence for a roll of toilet paper. She ventures into the basement and accidentally locks herself inside. Searching for a way out, Tess stumbles across a hidden door in the basement, leading to a secret corridor. There, she finds evidence that someone was held captive and filmed. She flees the basement, being freed by Keith after he returns. When she tells Keith what she has seen, he ventures down to the basement to investigate. When he doesn't return, Tess goes back down after him and discovers another subterranean tunnel leading further under the house. Following Keith's screams, Tess finds him claiming that there is someone in the tunnel who bit him. As Tess panics, a large, naked, deformed female suddenly attacks the pair and brutally kills Keith, repeatedly smashing his head into the walls of the tunnel.

Two weeks later, sitcom actor AJ (Justin Long) learns he has been fired from his show due to rape allegations by a co-star. Pressured to sell his assets to pay for his legal costs, he travels to one of his rental properties in Detroit, intending to sell it. It is revealed to be the same house where Tess and Keith were staying. AJ finds their belongings still in the house. Assuming the residence has attracted squatters, he searches for them but to no avail. He then goes out drinking with a friend, where he unconvincingly explains that his co-star consented to have sex with him.

Upon drunkenly returning back to the house, AJ inspects the basement and discovers the hidden door and tunnel. He finds a room containing a television playing a video about breastfeeding newborn children before being chased by the deformed woman. Fleeing, he falls into a pit alongside a still-alive Tess. She tells AJ to stay calm and that the woman in the tunnels (referred to as "The Mother") wants them to act as her children. The Mother forces Tess to drink milk from a bottle and tends to her. When AJ refuses, The Mother drags him away to the TV room and forces him to breastfeed. Tess takes the opportunity to flee the basement and narrowly escapes the house with the help of Andre, the homeless man she was chased by earlier. Andre warns her to leave the neighborhood before it gets dark, as The Mother goes out hunting at night, and berates her for wanting to go back to save AJ. Tess attempts to explain the situation to a pair of incredulous policemen, but they don't believe her.

A flashback to the 1980s shows the house's original owner, Frank (Richard Brake), who stalked and abducted young women and held them captive in the tunnels, raping them and raising the subsequent children. Back in the present, while attempting to escape, AJ finds a room that The Mother is seemingly afraid of. Inside, he finds a vegetative Frank, as well as dozens of videotapes of Frank raping different women. AJ unintentionally gives Frank access to a gun, which Frank uses to kill himself. Taking the gun, AJ ventures back into the tunnels. Night falls and The Mother leaves the house to hunt down Tess. Tess, waiting in her car for The Mother to leave the house, runs her over, pinning her to the house and seemingly killing her. Tess returns to the basement tunnel to find AJ, only to be accidentally shot by him in the darkness. The two escape the house with Frank's gun in tow.

Upon exiting the residence, they find that The Mother has freed herself from the car. Andre finds the pair, takes them to his hideout and explains that The Mother is a product of decades of rape and incest. The Mother ambushes the group and violently kills Andre, before chasing Tess and AJ up a water tower. With no way to escape, AJ pushes Tess off the tower to distract The Mother. The Mother jumps off after Tess, shielding her from the fall. As AJ attempts to apologize to a gravely wounded Tess, The Mother regains consciousness and kills him by gouging his eyes out and splitting his skull. She attempts to bring Tess back to the house and nurse her, but Tess shoots her in the head with Frank's gun. With The Mother finally dead, Tess stumbles away, bloody and traumatized.

Cast

• Georgina Campbell as Tess Marshall, a woman staying in Detroit for an interview.
• Bill Skarsgård as Keith Toshko, a man who double books an Airbnb with Tess staying in Detroit to scout locations for his community organization.
• Justin Long as AJ Gilbride, a sitcom actor
• Matthew Patrick Davis as The Mother
• Richard Brake as Frank, the Mother's father
• Kurt Braunohler as Doug
• Jaymes Butler as Andre
• J.R. Esposito as Jeff
• Kate Bosworth as Melisa
• Sophie Sörensen as Bonnie Zane
• Brooke Dillman as AJ's Mom
• Sara Paxton as Nursing Video Narration/Assistant/Megan
• Will Greenberg as Robert
• Derek Morse as Officer 1
• Trevor Van Uden as Officer 2
• Zach Cregger as Everett
• Kalina Stancheva as Young Woman
• Devina Vassileva as Property Manager Assistant

Production

Zach Cregger was inspired by the non-fiction book The Gift of Fear, citing a section that encourages women to trust their intuition and not ignore the subconscious red flags that arise in their day-to-day interactions with men. He sat down to write a single thirty-page scene that would incorporate as many of these red flags as possible. Cregger settled on a woman showing up to an Airbnb late at night, only to find that it had been double booked, as the ideal set-up for this exercise, with a rule about having to surprise the audience if he were surprising himself with the writing.[5]

He became frustrated during the writing process, fearing the direction of the story was too predictable. So Cregger, with no forethought, decided to introduce a twist that would "flip [the scene] on its head."

I just wanted to write a fun scene for myself and it ended up being something that hooked me, and I didn’t know where it was going, and then it turned into a feature film.[6]

While writing the screenplay, Cregger named the film Barbarian as a placeholder. As the story progressed, the name eventually became the title of the film.[7][8]

Early in pre-production, Cregger reportedly reached out to multiple financiers and distributors, including A24 and Neon, but was rejected. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules agreed to produce the film through their BoulderLight Pictures company, and were later joined by Vertigo Entertainment, after Lifshitz and Margules reached out to Vertigo's Roy Lee who had served as an early mentor to the duo. In mid-2020, Lifshitz and Margules accrued a $3.5 million budget for the film, largely through foreign financing, most of it from the French production company Logical Pictures.[9]

That same year, Lee brought in Bill Skarsgård, who had previously worked with Lee in It and It Chapter Two, to co-star and serve as an executive producer. Barbarian began principal photography in early 2021 in Bulgaria. The film was shot in Sofia, while exterior neighborhood shots were filmed in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan.[10][11] In April 2022, Logical's founder and the film's main financier Eric Tavitian, died from cancer. Unsure of the film's future, Lee secured financial backing from New Regency, and as a result, 20th Century Studios became the film's distributor, stemming from a prior distribution deal between Regency and Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century's parent division.[9]

Casting

Zac Efron was the first choice for the role of AJ, whom Cregger initially envisioned as a "beefcake kind of himbo."[12] However, when Efron turned down the part, Cregger decided to take the image of the character in a different direction and chose Justin Long for his "warm and disarming and charming, lovable presence onscreen" which he though would make the role more engaging to audiences.[13]

Release

Barbarian was originally scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by 20th Century Studios on August 12, 2022, before being rescheduled to be released on August 31, and later September 9.[14][15] Disney reportedly maintained a theatrical release for Barbarian (as opposed to a streaming release on Hulu) due to strong, positive reception from studio test screenings.[16][9]

CinemaBlend and AMC Theatres premiered the film at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, where it garnered positive reactions.[17][18] The film was also screened at the Arrow Video FrightFest on August 29.[19] It will be released on October 28, 2022 in the United Kingdom, October 20, 2022 in Australia, and October 27, 2022 in New Zealand.[20][21]

Barbarian will be released on digital download and to stream on HBO Max beginning on October 25, 2022.[22]

Marketing

The first trailer for the film was released on June 23, 2022, and appeared at the front of theatrical screenings of The Black Phone.[15][23] According to Margules, Disney marketed the film to "feel like a discovery" and teasing very little of the film's plot in promotional materials.[9]

After the film's release, producer Roy Lee tweeted an alternative trailer with scenes featuring Justin Long.

Reception

Box office

As of October 10, 2022^[update], Barbarian has grossed $36.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $38.6 million.[4]

In the United States and Canada, Barbarian was released alongside Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva and Lifemark, and made $3.9 million from 2,340 theaters on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $10 million, topping the box office; 59% of the audience was male, with 74% being between 18-34.[16] The film made $6.3 million in its second weekend, finishing behind newcomer The Woman King. Deadline Hollywood called the 40% week-to-week drop "pretty spectacular", noting that horror films typically see a 65% decline in their sophomore frames.[24] The film was added to 550 theaters in its third weekend and made $4.8 million, finishing fourth at the box office.[2]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus states: "Smart, darkly humorous and above all scary, Barbarian offers a chilling and consistently unpredictable thrill ride for horror fans."[25] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[26] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave the film a 70% overall positive score, with 54% saying they would definitely recommend it.[16]

References

External links

• Official website
• Barbarian at IMDb

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