“BARBARIAN”

It’s a dark stormy night and a young woman in town for a job interview arrives at her Airbnb, only to be greeted by a strange man. The place has been mistakenly double-booked and with no alternative but to ignore her better judgement she decides to stay there too.

So, with this kind of set-up, you’re probably thinking this will be a colour-by-numbers horror, right? Helpless female in the dead of night, strange dude that just has to be a serial killer… right? Right?

WRONG!!!!

And frankly that’s about all I’m going to say about the plot. 

This, I promise, is a SPOILER FREE ZONE… no SPOILERS to see here, none, not one, absolutely no SPOILERS allowed, heck they’re barely even tolerated here in the zone.

I went in blind with this one. After seeing the teaser trailer about a month ago, I made a conscious effort to avoid any semblance of a spoiler…and that my reader, is the way you too should go into this.

Whilst this movie has an absolute blast playing with various horror tropes, most notably the incessantly bad decisions all horror protagonists make. It’s the twists, rug pulls and absolute batshit insanity that makes “Barbarian” a must watch.

The Prognosis:

Director Zach Cregger, usually an actor known for more comedic roles (“The Whitest Kids U Know”, “Wrecked”), gleefully dances between the genres of comedy and horror. There were times I found myself gripping my seat in terrified anticipation, only to be laughing my absolute ass off seconds later.

It made me jump, it made me gasp, it made me laugh my ass off… easily best horror movie of 2022! #Barbarian https://t.co/DEcm7UvhoC

— Myles Davies (@mylesdavies) October 14, 2022

*The director even liked my tweet… now we’re best friends, obviously.

The actors are all fantastic too. 

Brit actor Georgina Campbell, from the excellent “Hang the DJ” episode of “Black Mirror” & the apple+ series “Suspicion”, absolutely shines.

There you have it… an attempt at a review that gives absolutely nothing away.

So now I’ve kept my side of the bargain, all you need to do is go see “Barbarian.” 

Then dear reader, let’s discuss… you can catch me on Twitter with my new bestie Zach… Zach Cregger the director… Creggers… Creggsy… actually, I don’t know him.

• Myles Davies