brake alert: Don’t read if you haven’t seen “The Barbarian”.
“The Barbarian” is one of the most discussed horror films of the year, in large part due to some of the unruly twists and turns in the trailers. However, many of the film’s biggest moments are worth discussing other than the cries of “WTF!” diverse.
The film’s first act is the most traditional, with Tess (Georgina Campbell) accidentally booking a double on Airbnb for the same time period as charming stranger Keith (Bill Skarsgård). She can’t find another lodging in this tough part of Detroit… should she stay the night? From there, Tess’s fear mounts as she infiltrates the hidden underground tunnels beneath the house, and encounters a mutant woman known as the Mother, who has brutally murdered Keith right in front of her. In the film’s most tense moment, there’s a crushing cut of… newly introduced Justin Long, driving a convertible on a sunny California highway, singing with no regard for the world.
It’s the most controversial part of the year, but the film’s endgame quickly built up from there: Director AJ (long, amazingly cast against writing) is about to be teleported to a new reality, as he hits the front page of entertainment deals after being accused of raping an actress. With his income rapidly dwindling, he has to quickly liquidate assets, including the rent he owns – you guessed it – in Detroit. AJ then heads to the tunnels and plots an escape plan with Tess from their underground captors. While audiences may be left injured during the first viewing, Krieger made it clear that he sees Tess and AJ mirror each other.
“They are two sides of the same coin,” Krieger says. diverse. The beginning of the movie is a woman trying hard to assess the threat and trying to determine if she is with a predator or not. I read this book, The Gift of Fear, which informed me of all this and woke me up to the idea that men and women coexist in this common space, yet we share strange psychological scenes. Men don’t have to assess the threat the same as women.”
He continued, “So that was the story of the first piece, and then the second one being the opposite polarity. He’s a guy who’s doing all this damage and he’s oblivious to it. He doesn’t value anything about himself. And so they’re soulmates – they’re just opposite each other. The gauntlet. AJ fails the test, and Tess passes the test. It’s really twins who go through the same substance.”
While “Barbarian” was being written, both The Mother and AJ – and the subsequent twists – were not initially planned.
“I didn’t know that this twisting and [The Mother] The character was around until the moment of its appearance,” he said. “And when [The Mother] He showed up and they finished this chapter, and I thought, ‘It’s over. There is no movie here. It’s a short, fun 40 minutes and that’s nothing, so I’m done. And then I didn’t want to leave it alone. I very much enjoyed writing it and said, “I have to go back… How can I go back to this world from the opposite direction?” And this is where it all started for me. It wasn’t a math process, I just wanted to keep going somehow, and it was a fun process.”
Ironically, the film’s structure and vicissitudes, which has already captivated horror fans on social media and Reddit, almost prevented the production from being greenlit.
It took me a year and a half to attract anyone,” Krieger said. “Nobody wanted to make that movie. I sent it to everyone I knew, and I just had a general idea, ‘It’s so weird.’ Everyone wanted to change the structure: ‘You can’t make a main character on page 50’ and all that stuff. Everyone loves him. It was everything I thought made him so special, so it was a real business.”
Although Cregger is interested in developing more horror films, he shows extreme restraint when it comes to complementary “Barbarian” talk, especially in the wake of the film’s horrific end.
“There won’t be any ‘Barbarian 2’,” he said. “What will it be? I always joke when people ask me, “Yeah, [The Mother] She should go get her driver’s license and GED and try to reintegrate into society. ID Watch This movie, but I wouldn’t make it.”
