Review: Barbarian

-


Tess (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit for a job interview. She arrives late to her Air BnB only to find that it's been double booked, and another man, Keith (Bill Skarsgard) is also staying there. The house looks nice, but is in a very run down neighborhood, so Tess chooses to stay. She then discovers a series of tunnels beneath the house.

I'll admit, the only reason I went to see this in theaters is because of director Zach Cregger. I used to love his sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U'Know. I had seen the trailer for this and thought it looked fine, but he was the deciding factor in making it a theater watch vs a home watch. 

Barbarian is easily one of the best horror films I've seen in a while. It's effectively creepy. It's going to give you some visuals that are very disturbing, but it's also clever and at times pretty damn funny. I wouldn't call it a horror comedy, but there's a few bits that come in about half way through when Justin Long's character enters the picture that are very much Cregger's humor.

Campbell, Skarsgard and Long are all great in their parts. Skarsgard probably gets the least to do but his casting is brilliant for what his character ends up being. You'll understand what I mean when you watch. 

So is this for you? A content warning, there are mentions of sexual assault, but thankfully it's never shown. Another thing I appreciate the director doing. No one wants to see that. It's a must see if you're a horror fan.

Grade: B

Comments

  1. thevoid99September 17, 2022 at 8:26 PM

    I don't think I'm going to watch this as I didn't like The Whitest Kids U Know and I remember the last time Cregger made a film was Miss March which I fucking hated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 20, 2022 at 7:54 AM

      Miss March was awful, but the rapper being named Horsedick.mpeg is still one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard. He's definitely come a long way.

      Delete
  2. keith71_98September 19, 2022 at 2:52 PM

    I appreciate your review. I've been reading lots of them in an effort to figure out what the heck I'm missing. I just wasn't that impressed with it, mainly because I couldn't shake how dumb these characters were! From the very first scene it's one bad decision after another. I think Campbell and Skarsgard are especially good despite the script. But I just can't make it click with me.

    It's lonely on this island! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 20, 2022 at 7:53 AM

      LOL I've been on that island with movies before. I get it. That's the thing with horror movies, everyone makes stupid decisions. Sometimes the script can make me go with the flow, other times I just get frustrated like you did and ask "whyyyyyy?!"

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more