Hallo-Watch: Barbarian (2022)

Watched:  10/17/2025

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Zach Cregger

So, this is a movie by the guy behind the very popular 2025 film Weapons, which I do plan to watch at some point.  And when I said "yes, I will see Weapons", folks asked "but have you seen Barbarian (2022)?"  To which I would say "no".  Until NOW.

So...  this movie is part of the horror genre of inbred underground/ remotely dwelling folks who are going to give our unsuspecting leads a very bad time.  Or just weirdos living in a place.  So, movies like Death Line immediately come to mind.   But also The Hills Have Eyes.  The People Under the Stairs.  CHUD, I guess.  One could even point to Psycho (and I'll circle back to that)

I don't mean to say there's nothing special about this movie, but it feels like a Polly Pocket version of one of those movies.  Only, taking inspiration from some real-life cases of psychos kidnapping women and keeping them in their basement.  

Our star is Georgina Campbell, who plays Tess - a woman who does research for documentaries - who is in Detroit to apply for a gig.  She stays at an AirBnB only to find it's been double-booked by Bill Skarsgard, who is an artist looking for a place for a new commune.

It sure feels like Tess and Keith (Skarsgard) are hitting it off, and perhaps romance would bloom.  But something is... off.  

SPOILERS

Well, I wasn't really expecting the thing to be off to be that someone built a tunnel under their house and populated it with their own inbred lover/ child/ whatever.  

Like Psycho, the movie kinda sorta has a pivot when the real threat comes in in the form of the "Mother" and Keith gets whacked, upending the movie you sort of thought you were watching and turning your expectations.

Then we have a whole scenario where we have to introduce Justin Long.  He's an actor who just got accused of SA, and is seeing his career and life as he knows it is done.  The two stories dovetail as Long has to leave LA and come to Detroit to look into selling his AirBnB investment to raise some quick capital.  

The movie seems to vacillate between being clever and showing why you don't break some conventions in writing.  I get the basic idea was that they wanted Tess and Long to not know each other and in comparison to Keith, not know what a moron/ piece of shit Long's character is.  And they have Long make mistakes, etc... that put he and/ or Tess in danger.  

The police scene I guess was supposed to be some black comedy but... fudge.  It just didn't ring particularly true as Tess seems coherent and is clearly stating what occurred.  In the end, it reminded me "I am watching a movie" as the scene unspooled.

I dunno.  The movie was fine.  Not particularly frightening.  I know I'm suffering a bit from being told it was the new, great thing and expecting too much.  But I also don't know how much I'm into this particular sort of thing.  It just makes me ask too many questions.  

How, in 40 years, did this guy manage to breed a mutant - and for her to be that age and maturity?  How is she so strong if all she does is hang out in a tunnel?  What are they eating?   How are they pooping?  How did this house sell to Justin Long?  How did it happen to get double-booked this same day?  Was that intentional?  

Like I say, the movies was fine.  I just kept getting taken out of the movie thinking about this stuff.

Georgina Campbell looked super familiar, and I figured out she was on the Krypton TV show I watched for a bit a few years ago playing a relative of General Zod.*  And I think she's pretty solid here.  It would be great to see her in something else that plays in the US, because she's working all the time in UK-released stuff.

But, honestly, if you like this sort of thing, I'd recommend Death Line.  But as far as being a fairly effective B-movie?  Yeah.  It's okay!  I get how it got the writer/director their next project.

*this same show had Hannah Waddingham on as Jax-Ur.