Main cast: Georgina Campbell (Tess Marshall), Bill Skarsgård (Keith Toshko), Justin Long (AJ Gilbride), Matthew Patrick Davis (The Mother), Richard Brake (Frank), Jaymes Butler (Andre), and Kurt Braunohler (Doug)
Director: Zach Cregger

Well, Barbarian is certainly a somewhat fresh take on the usual deformed killer trope.

It all begins when Tess Marshall discovers that the Airbnb place she has rented is also rented off to a rather awkward fellow, Keith Toshko. After sharing a bottle of wine, her initial mistrust of him ebbs as they agree to share the place for the night before filing an official complaint the next day. After all, she needs to go to a job interview tomorrow, and all the hotels in the neighborhood is booked solid due to a medical convention in town.

However, she soon discovers that there is a hidden corridor in the basement, and worse, there’s a… thing that eventually kills Keith and holds her prisoner.

Then, later, actor AJ Gilbride shows up at the place. He’s the owner, and now he needs a place to lay low after a co-star of the TV show he stars in came up and accused him of being a sex fiend, and he was fired as a result. Well, he soon learns that he has some unwelcome guests in his place.

Justin Long is pretty fun to watch as the annoying, obnoxious, yet entertaining AJ, and I feel that he is responsible for elevating this show. Without him, this would have been much more forgettable film.

The show does a miscalculation with the lead female character, though. It isn’t Georgina Campbell’s fault; rather, Tess is a character that is far more obnoxious than she should be, and unlike AJ, her obnoxiousness is not fun to watch because it isn’t deliberate like AJ’s.

For example, it’s one thing to mistrust Keith initially, but it is another thing to scream and shout over him when he’s trying to tell her about the person in the basement. He keeps telling her to be quiet, but no, she keeps raising her voice. Naturally, this leads to the thing in the basement finding them, and because Tess has plot armor, poor Keith is the one that bites the dust.

This is a pattern that persists throughout the whole show. Even the thing in the basement ends up not wanting to hurt Tess at all, because she is so special. All the others that come into contact with her, even those that want to help her—the fact that these are all men probably means that Zach Cregger probably wants to inject some “I really respect women, I do! Long live women, death to all men! Love me, people!” message in this movie—only makes her come off as even more annoying.

I actually cheer when AJ tries to get rid of her, but you know how it is. We can’t have that, so he must be punished.

A show like this needs a Laurie Strode-ish lead female character, especially when the movie wants to present this bond formed between her and the thing in the basement. Tess isn’t even close to being half of that—she just happens to be at the wrong place and time, doesn’t do anything particularly intelligent or smart, and survives just because… woman?

At any rate, this one has a pretty good lead-up and atmosphere, some good scares, but the heroine being what she is ends up making the whole thing more of a let down in the end.