LESS THAN 1
TEMPO DE LEITURA MIN
BARBARIAN
★★★★
OUT 28 OCTOBER / CERT TBC / 102 MINS
DIRECTOR Zach Cregger
CAST Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Zach Cregger
Barbarian is best experienced with little foreknowledge. Researcher Tess (Georgina Campbell), just out of a bad relationship, arrives in a rundown Detroit neighbourhood only to find her Airbnb double-booked by the mysterious Keith (Bill Skarsgård); what follows is surprising, disturbing and wildly entertaining. Writer-director Zach Cregger maintains a thoughtfulness in his tale of urban decay and abusive affection, while twisting the screws with the same kind of building absurdity deployed in his TV sketch show The Whitest Kids U’ Know. Every music cue and lens choice serves the film’s tonal hopscotch, transforming it from run-of-the-mill spooky-house saga to beguiling genre romp. Claustrophobic, amusing, and in its best moments, both.