What is the protocol for when two people rent the same Airbnb on the same weekend from two different websites? They both show up on the same day to check-in. The Airbnb manager doesn’t answer their phone? It’s dark. It’s raining and the house is located in a decrepit neighborhood. There’s a convention in Detroit and all the hotel rooms are already booked.
The two decide to share the space—him on the couch and her in the bedroom. It’s just one night and he makes a point of not opening or pouring her wine without her oversight. Out of respect.
With every passing second the director toys with our emotions and common sense, giving audiences a monstrously taut, psychological, thriller with a fresh, modern premise. It is a different breed of scary, a different breed of realistic horror.
BARBARIAN is terrifying. It is unnerving. It burrows into our pathological and illogical fears and gnaws away the prefrontal cortex leaving us with our prehistoric fight-flight-freeze trauma response. It’s brilliant—horror done right.
Grade AAvailable on HBO Max
