Barbarian

Available on: Disney+

Zach Cregger’s thriller sparked early fanfare for its laudable media campaign, which demonstrated a restraint that is rare in modern cinema by simply presenting its central premise – that of a young woman (played by Georgina Campbell) arriving at her pre-booked Airbnb, only to find that it is already occupied by a stranger (Bill Skarsgård) who suggests that she stays the night.

This rare case of ingenious marketing, helped in no small part by Skarsgård’s previous role as Pennywise of IT fame, means that Barbarian does retain an element of surprise that succeeds in getting viewers on the hook. But unfortunately, the film cannot resist the familiar tropes of its genre and devolves into a predictable affair.

To divulge why this is the case would be to ruin the film’s few surprises, but it’s safe to say that its greatest sin is allowing Campbell’s initially astute protagonist to regress into the sort of eyeroll-inducing damsel in distress that is too stupid to root for. It’s for this reason that I simply cannot agree with some critic’s assessment that Barbarian is a piece of feminist filmmaking; for me, it flirts with contemporary topics without ever seriously engaging with them.  

Ultimately, this is familiar monster movie fare that fails to deliver on an otherwise engaging plot.