Edition #032: Barbarian
You make a copy of a copy of a copy, you get that
Barbarian (2022) is a smart, surprising horror film that twists right when you think it’s going to turn.
It’s got great acting, unexpected thematic depth, and some wild tonal shifts that border on silly but manage to keep their cool (cue a Hollywood-ified Justin Long).
I’m always here for female rage, in all its monstrous forms.
What’s the deal?
Tess arrives at her AirBnB to find it already occupied by Keith (Bill Skarsgard). After some initial awkwardness, the two decide to make the best of their situation.
But then Tess finds a secret tunnel in the basement, and lurking inside is Mother/monster.
The home’s first owner (Frank) kidnapped, assaulted, and bred women — and the resultant offspring (Mother/monster) still lives beneath the house, killing (or nursing) whoever comes her way.
The current owner of the house, AJ (Justin Long), a disgraced actor, needs to sell the house to pay his sexual assault legal fees. He joins the fray, making every wrong decision possible.
In the final battle, AJ sacrifices Tess to Mother/monster, and pays the price: his eyeballs.
M/m calls Tess her child, and saves her, and Tess and M/m share a quiet moment of understanding before Tess kills her.
I can’t stop thinking about...
There’s a playfulness in how this movie toys with tension and tropes.
When Tess arrives at the AirBnB to find Keith already there, we expect Skarsgard to Skarsgard and heads to roll.
But Keith isn’t the bad guy. The bad guy is the big, bad basement. The secret network of underground tunnels, dark and labyrinthine.
No, it’s M/m, a naked, deformed woman who throws Keith and Tess in her pit to rot.
No, it's AJ, the sex pest actor/landlord who seems to be the only one profiting in this neglected neighborhood.
No, the real evil is Frank, the man who built this horror, who spawned M/m into existence.
No, actually, it’s AJ again. Or no: it’s the police, who don’t believe Tess about what’s going on.
No, no, no.
And in that final moment, when M/m saves Tess and cradles her like a child, there is a deep and trenchant sympathy, and a deep suspicion that, at least in this movie, evil is man-made — and that the monstrous maternal instinct of M/m is something much closer to redemption.
From your own Mother/monster,
Horrorshow Jane